Holiday in Blenheim

The good thing about being self-employed is the enormous flexibility. At least on days I’m not onsite with a client I can organise my working day the way I want. Since I often do some work on the weekends (especially at the moment, while the evil winter weather doesn’t encourage us to go outside), I don’t even feel guilty when I take some time off during the week. Last Monday for example I jumped onto a ferry to Picton, where Helen picked me up for three days of mini-vacation in Blenheim. We had a great time with heaps of geocaching, a visit to the Centre of New Zealand, chatting, eating, buying old books and magazines, and the best winery tour ever (lead by Helen’s dad, who’s a winemaker at one of the largest wineries). On Wednesday I flew back with Soundsair, where I was allowed to sit in the co-pilots seat. Very exiting and a bit creepy to fly right into massive amounts of clouds when it’s pitch-dark outside…

Es handelte sich mal wieder um einen Wochenendausflug. Kai war zwei Wochen lang bei unserem Lieblingskunden an der Gold Coast und ich bin für ein verlängertes Wochenende rüber geflogen. Auf dem Hinflug habe ich auf Anraten der Flugbegleiterin The Hangover geguckt – ein Film den ich aufgrund der Beschreibung sicher nicht selbst ausgesucht hätte, der sich aber als einer der besten Komödien die ich je gesehen habe herausgestellt hat. Dementsprechend gut gelaunt kam ich in Brisbane an, sprang in den Zug Richtung Southport und ließ mich vom Kai am Bahnhof abholen. Nach einem kurzen Meeting beim Kunden und einer kleinen Tour durchs Einkaufszentrum konnten wir uns gegen Nachmittag auf den Weg nach Coolum Beach machen. Es folgten zwei herrliche Tage! Obwohl man sich nicht wirklich am Strand aufhalten konnte, da ein Tornado etwas weiter nördlich tobte und die Wellen riesig waren (ein Teenager starb sogar bei einem Lebensretter-Wettbewerb), hatten wir eine tolle Zeit. Diesmal haben wir den Australia Zoo besucht, den von Steve Irwine – dem Crocodile Hunter – errichteten Tierpark. Meine Erwartungen waren eigentlich nicht sehr hoch, doch ich war sehr positiv überrascht. Ich muss sagen, dass es einer der besten Zoos war, die ich bislang besucht habe – ich hätte gern noch einen zweiten Tag dort verbracht. Doch leider blieb dafür keine Zeit, und am Sonntag musste ich schon wieder zurück nach Wellington. Es war aber ein tolles Wochenende!

What? Last time I’ve blogged was in February? Can’t be! And the only reason why I found out was because in my mind I’ve already started packing my suitcase for our next trip to Australia. Only then I remembered that I haven’t even reported on the last trip at the end of March. Time to do so, I would say!

It was a weekend trip once again. Kai spent two weeks with one of our clients at the Gold Coast, and I flew over for a long weekend. On the way to Australia the flight attendant recommended watching The Hangover – a film I probably wouldn’t have picked if I had read the description only. But it turned out to be one of the best comedy movies I have ever watched. So I was in a very good mood when I left the plane and got into the train to meet Kai in Southport. After another short meeting with the client and a quick trip to the local shopping mall we were ready to travel up to Coolum Beach. There we had two wonderful days! Although we couldn’t spend much time at the beach, since there was a cyclone further up north and the waves were enormous (a teenager even died during a life savings competition) we had a great time. This time we went to visit Australia Zoo, the conservation park founded by crocodile hunter Steve Irwin. My expectations weren’t really high, so I was absolutely positively surprised when it turned out to be one of the best zoos I’ve ever visited – I wish I could have spent another day there. But unfortunately we had no time left, and on the Sunday I had to get back to Wellington. But it was an amazing weekend.

Die Airpoints Fairy ist eine sehr süße Marketing-Idee von Air New Zealand. Über ihre Webseite www.airpointsfairy.co.nz oder ihren Twitter Account kann man Air New Zealand bezogene Wünsche äußern, die von der Fee dann oft auch erfüllt werden. Normalerweise handelt es sich um kleinere Wünsche, wie ein paar fehlende Airpoints (die Währung des Air NZ Loyalty Programms), Einlass in die Koru Lounges, Tickets für ein Golfturnier oder kostenloses Parken am Flughafen.

Zur Weihnachtszeit gab es jedoch eine ganz besondere Aktion, bei der es auch größere Dinge abzustauben galt. Am Morgen des 12. Dezembers fragte die Fee, wer denn einen Flug im Boeing 777 Simulator verdiene. Zu der Zeit lagen wir noch im Bett, es war ein recht stürmischer Tag und Kai hatte gerade einen Flug in seiner Cessna absagen müssen, weil es so windig war. Natürlich fand ich, dass Kai sich dadurch einen Simulatorflug verdient hatte, und als die Fee am Nachmittag ihren Zauberstab schwang, traf ihr Feenstaub uns. Hurra, ein Simulatorflug für Kai! In der darauf folgenden Email-Kommunikation stellte sich dann heraus, dass auch ich mitkommen durfte, und Air New Zealand uns einen ganzen Tag lang all die tollen Sachen zeigen würde, die Aviation-Freaks wie Kai und mich brennend interessieren. Und heute war es dann endlich soweit!

Zunächst mussten wir einmal nach Auckland. Kein Problem mit den regelmässigen Pendlerflügen zur frühen Morgenstunde. Nach einem ausgibigen Frühstück in der Koru Lounge ging es auf die Reise und in Auckland wurden wir bereits am Gate von Mark abgeholt. Nach einem kurzen Spaziergang um den halben Flughafen herum, kamen wir an der Engeneering Base an. Dort gesellte sich Ian zu uns, der mir (ganz neuseeländisch in Flip-Flops) erstmal Sicherheitsschuhe besorgte. Wir wurden durch den gesamten Maintenance-Komplex geführt; haben gesehen, wie Flugzeugnasen gebaut werden (sehr spannend, denn sie müssen einerseits super stark, andererseits jedoch radardurchlässig sein), wie Reifen auf den Vordermann gebracht werden, wie Rettungsflöße getestet werden, und vieles mehr. Air New Zealand fliegt nämlich nicht nur Passagiere von A nach B, sondern ist auch in viele Geschäftsgebiete hinter den Kulissen eingespannt.

Als nächstes ging es hinüber zum Simulator. Kai hat bereits angefangen, sich drüben im Blog in Black ausgibig über diese Erfahrung auszulassen. Es handelte sich um eine Boeing 777-200 und wir haben Starten und Landen in Auckland geübt. Kai hatte die ganze Zeit die Kontrolle über das Flugzeug. Zwar hat Joy, unsere Trainerin, mich mehrmals gefragt ob ich übernehmen wolle, allerdings konnte ich Kai diese Enttäuschung nicht zumuten. Immerhin hatte er sich im Vorfeld sogar das 6.500 Seiten starke Trainings-Manual runtergeladen, während ich nach wie vor eine Boeing kaum von einem Airbus unterscheiden kann. Er hatte sich die Flugerfahrung also redlich verdient.

Nächste Etappe unserer Air NZ Experience war Hangar 9. Dabei handelt es sich um eine geheime Halle, in der die kreativen Köpfe von Air New Zealand seit 2006 am neuen Innendesign der 777 gearbeitet haben. Seitdem die neuen Designs der Business Premier, Premium Economy und Ecomomy Class (inklusive der revolutionären Skycouchen) der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt wurden, ist Hangar 9 für ausgewählte Personen zugänglich und wir hatten die Chance, den Prototyp der neuen Sitzgeneration zu bestaunen. Alisha vom Marketing-Team hat uns alles gezeigt und erklärt und wir konnten alle Sitze ausprobieren. Ausserdem gab es noch Einblicke in Konzepte die später verworfen wurde, und Erläuterungen zum Entwicklungsprozess im Allgemeinen.

Danach ging es leider schon wieder zurück zum Flughafen. Aber ich muss sagen, man hat sich super um uns gekümmert. Jede/r Einzelne hat sich bemüht, den Tag für uns unvergesslich zu machen, und das ist ihnen auch wirklich gelungen! Die Airpoints Fairy ist die Beste!!!

The ultimate magical experience

The Airpoints Fairy is a very cute marketing idea from Air New Zealand. Members of the Air NZ loyalty programme can send her wishes via her homepage www.airpointsfairy.co.nz or her Twitter Account, and almost every day she waves her wand and sparkles some fairy dust on a lucky person. Usually the wishes are relatively small, like adding some airpoints to someone’s account, entry to the koru lounges, free parking at the airport etc.

But around Christmas she was very, very generous and on the morning of 12 December she asked, if there was someone out there who deserved a flight in a Boeing 777 simulator. Since it was a very grey and stormy day in Wellington, and Kai had to cancel a flight in a Cessna he had booked, I thought that he was the one who deserved it most. I let the fairy know and when she waved her wand later that day, we got lucky. In the following email exchange it turned out that I was allowed to join him, and that Air New Zealand would take us around to show us all the stuff aviation freaks like us would die for seeing. And today was the magic day!

First of all we had to go to Auckland. No problem with all the commuter flights to the big city in the morning. We took off after a relaxed breakkie in the Koru lounge, and were greeted by Mark as soon as we left the plane in Auckland. We were taken to the engeneering/maintenance base, where Ian joined us to show us around – but first of all he had to organise some safety shoes for me – I had shown up in jandels, good old kiwi-style. Once we were on the way, we saw how they build airplane noses (very tricky, since they have to be really strong, but have to let radar in/out as well), how they refurbish wheels, how they check life rafts and much, much more. Air New Zealand is by far not “just” an airline, which brings travelers from A to B, there are many, many side businesses involved as well.

Next stop was the flight simulator. Kai has already started to cover this experience in detail over at Blog in Black. It was a Boeing 777-200 and we simulated take-offs and landings in Auckland. Kai kept control over the aircraft the whole time. Joy, our trainer, asked several times if I wanted to take over, but it would have been really disappointing for Kai, so I let him have the adrenaline waves involved in landing such an enormous aircraft. After all he was the one who had downloaded the 6,500 page training manual, while I can hardly tell a Boeing from an Airbus. He truly deserved flying this monster himself. Being able to add the flight to his log book also made him very happy.

After the flight experience we headed over to Hangar 9, the secret halls where the creative heads of Air New Zealand have worked on the new interior design of the 777. Since they have made the new designs of the seats in the different travel classes public (including the revolutionary skycouches in economy class), they sometimes show people around and we had the chance to have a first look at the prototypes of the new generation seat experience. Alisha from the marketing team explained everything to us and we got some insight into exciting concepts that were discussed but canned at some stage, and will never make it into production.

Then a taxi picked us up and took us back to the airport, I’m sure there would have been heaps more to see and explore. I must say that everyone involved took very good care of us, they made this an unforgettable experience. A big Thank You to all Air New Zealand staff who made this possible for us, and a double Thank You to the Airpoints Fairy, for being such a wonderful creature! The Airpoints Fairy is the best!

Kai got his rating for the Cessna 172, now he’s allowed to fly the “bigger” planes and carry up to three passengers. There’s nothing better than leaving a grey Wellington morning behind and fly into the sun of the Wairarapa. Today we had some turbulence on the way, but a trip into the air is still great when it’s bumpy…

We had visitors from Germany! Inka and Chris are currently traveling New Zealand by camper van and came to Wellington to celebrate Christmas with us. On the first day they had to explore Wellington without us, since Kai and I still had to work. But on Christmas eve I was able to sneak out of the office around midday and we we went to see the Pompeii exhibition at Te Papa. That evening we went over to JJ’s to celebrate Christmas with homemade Pizza and a game of German Pictionary (we made sure that we had mixed teams with both Germans and English/Kiwis). Christmas day was quite relaxing and we only had a little picnic at the Massey memorial in Miramar, including some geocaches. This morning Inka and Chris had to leave us again, and after a little shopping tour I did some gardening while Kai learned some cool new things (that what I hope, he spent the day watching conference talks online). I wish a) we had some public holidays in a row more often, and b) more people would come and visit us. It was really great fun with Inka and Chris…

I have been flying with Kai a few times before, but always in the back of four-seater planes with an instructor by his side and in areas that weren’t very windy (Tauranga, Napier, Nelson, Los Angeles). But now that Kai has his full PPL, we did a little scenic tour around Wellington about two weeks ago. That was sooooooooo beautiful!!!!

Tamiflu wasn’t the only thing that impressed me last week. There was the super-genius electrical Bubbles-Elephant, that I got in Sydney for my colleagues (that’s Helen in the picture playing with it, with Simon in the background) and the cheeky Kaka, that sat on my head at Nga Manu Nature Reserve but refused to turn around for the photo…

Earlier this week my colleague Channa and I did some interviews with people on the South Island for our website redesign. We started with a meeting in Christchurch on Monday and went further South to Dunedin later that day. I had never been there before, so we took the chance and visited the area – we went geocaching, drove around the peninsular and checked out the brand new Chinese Garden. This was a bit bizarre, as it is located in the middle of the city and surrounded by Scottish influenced buildings. It feels a bit strange if you’re standing at the Chinese pavillion and can see a Scottish cathedral pretty close…

We didn’t want to spend the whole weekend in Rotorua, so we said good-bye to everyone after breakfast and made our way up to Mt Maunganui. We’ve been there before and liked it so much that we could’t resist to go there, once we were so close. Sure, we did a few geocaches on the way up. In Mt Maunganui it rained heavily, so instead of walking along the beach we went to the movies. One of the ads before the movie was for Flying Burrito Brothers in Tauranga, and because we were craving mexican food from the second we saw the ad, we spent the night with fajitas and margaritas. Fortunately the weather was awesome the next day, so we finally had our beach walk, breakfast in a beautiful cafe at the beach, and a trip tp Hopukiore. After that we had to go back to Rotorua to catch our flight back home, but we had a quick stop at a thermal park on the way. What a great weekend!

Den Abend haben wir dann in einem alten Badehaus im Government Garden verbracht, bei grossartigem Buffet, exellentem Entertainment, Alkohol, Musik und Tanz. Es hat super viel Spass gemacht, all die lieben Leute wieder zu sehen und es fuehlte sich fast an, als waere ich nie fort gewesen. Ein richtig toller Abend. Bis jetzt habe ich nur unsere eigenen Fotos, ich kann es kaum erwarten, bald die Bilder vom Professionellen Fotografen zu haben.

On Friday I had a day off, to meet Kai (coming from Australia) in Rotorua, and to attend TIASA’s conference and 40th birthday party. First stop was the conference centre, where Peter was delivering his biannual report, and where Keshwant’s mobile rang when we arrived at the “guest/staff” table. Some things never change. Immediately I felt this warm and welcoming atmosphere again and I realised how much I miss all these people. During the first break my old members hugged me and asked me when I was coming back. After lunch and a speech of Andrew Little from EPMU (well, with a National government the prime minister simply doesn’t come to a union conference) it was Kai’s job to present the soon to be launched TIASA website. People loved it and they loved Ventego for creating it. Shortly after Kai’s presentation the conference closed for the day and while Kai went to the hotel to get some rest, I went on a geocaching mission around town. After that I went quickly back to the hotel to get changed for the TIASA Glitter Birthday Party.

We’ve spent the evening in an old bath house in Government Gardens, had awesome food, excellent entertainment, alcohol, music and dance. We had heaps of fun and it was great to see all the lovely people again, it felt as if I had never been away. It was a great night and I can’t wait to see the pictures of the professional photographer. Until then, my own photos have to be good enough.