nuzzaci - an online journal

This past weekend, the entire company of POKE went on a city break together. Third year running, this little “company get away” has become a nice little tradition. First year we (then 12) went to Tuscany in Italy, last year we (then 28) went to Sussex in England and this year we (40) went to Llangadog in Wales (just west of Brecon Beacons National Park). I don’t want to compare them to each other, since they have less incommon than common. What they do have in common, though, is that they are a bucket full of fun.

Here are some links

• Emma Beddard’s Flickr set
• Marc Davie’s Flickr set
• Nick Farnhill’s Flickr set
• Igor Clark’s Flickr set
• Tom Hostler’s Flickr set
• John Zachau’s Flickr
• Laura Green’s Flickr set
• Asi Sharabi’s Flickr
• Iain Tait’s video capture of The ‘Gor Dance

Yeah… I know; Italy, United States, New Zealand, Scotland and now Switzerland… and it’s only March. Guess I can’t complain (since I actually have a choice), but when I left for Switzerland there was nothing I wanted more then to just stay at home in our flat, doing nothing… well, ok, to do be totally honest, it was the same weekend as the first race of the 2007 Formula One Season.

The reason for this trip was snow. I have never been a person that goes on skiing or snowboarding holidays, mainly since I was born and raised in Skelleftea, where snow, most years, ends up being more of a burden than a bonus.
Willow on the other hand tries to get one snowboarding holiday or weekend a year, and this was it. Besides Willow and I, Willow’s little brother Sam and our flat-mate Annelie Widergren came along.

Like most places in 2007 - there wasn’t that much snow. So I didn’t really get into the mood of being on the slopes. So instead of renting gear and re-learning what I had learnt from 2006’s Lake Tahoe experience, I lingered with the locals.

I loved it.
Switzerland is very nice.
And I don’t regret that I had to watch the first Formula One GP on a TV with no sound.

So the weekend after we came back from our two weeks holiday in New Zealand, Willow and I went up to Edinburgh, Scotland, to pick up the Aga cooker we “won” on eBay. The coocker was brand new — still in the box and everything — so the trip was definitely worth the time, effort and the money.

This was my first visit to Edinburgh. Sadly it lasted about 90 minutes (dinner). We had to get Agatha (the cooker) down to Willow’s parents in Newcastle (where she will stay until we have made room for her in the flat) and get back to London the following morning.

Edinburgh seemed lovely though, so I will definitely go back.

A series of events has again made me notice the shadow of Mr Bad Luck. Like last time, Mr Bad seems to be accompanied by Mr Good. Mr Good and Mr Bad do seem to hang out together.

In chronological order:

• Teeth

  Three days before I left for New Zealand I had a root canal treatment and removed a wisdom tooth.

• Passport

  Customs in Melbourne basically ripped my passport in two halves.

• Luggage

  When I arrived in Christchurch after a 25 hour flight my baggage didn’t arrive.

• Arse

  Towards the end of my two week holiday in New Zealand, I managed to get a huge abscess on my left butt cheek.

• Passport (again)

  Leaving Christchurch took the last breath out of my passport - it was now invalid and they had to call London ahead to make sure I had permission to land. So since I was flying to Switzerland in two weeks, my first day back in the UK — the day I had taken off to relax and unpack etc — I had to rush to the Swedish Embassy to order a new passport.

• Nine Inch Nails

  The tickets I had ordered for the Nine Inch Nails concert never arrived.

Seems like Mr Bad from the Luck family decided to retreat from my presence as I left for Scotland. I haven’t really seen him since.

On the 6th of November 2006 I ordered 4 Nine Inch Nails tickets for the Carling Academy Brixton concert in London on Thursday the 8th of March 2007 from Seetickets.

These tickets never arrived.

The tracking system said that they had been delivered and signed for. No one at my address had signed for any tickets.

Seetickets couldn’t do anything.
I missed the concert.

If I order or buy something from a store, retailer or service provider, and don’t receive the item(s) I ordered, I expect to get my money back. And I expect the procedure to be fairly quick and simple.

Bank details, bosh - job done.

But no, they said they have to start an investigation to see what has happened, once the investigation is finished I might get my money back.

This gig was 13 days ago.
I still haven’t heard anything from Seetickets. I called them a week ago; waited in a queue for an hour. They then said they would get in contact with me when they knew more.

A holiday is no longer about the journey. 9 times out of 10 it’s all about the destination. The journey works more as a reminder and indicator that we are actually going somewhere; telling our body and mind that we have gone somewhere else; that things are now different and we can now look upon people with an objective mind, like if we were visiting animals at the zoo.

A flight from London, UK, to Christchurch, New Zealand takes about 25 hours in travel time, and has a time difference of 13 hours plus. Now that’s a bit more than just a “small reminder to prepare for a difference in culture”.

A UK - NZ flight sticks with you for a while.
And gives you stories to tell.

It all ran smoothly up until Melbourne. The guy at customs almost tore my passport apart. I told him to be careful since I had noticed that the photo page in my passport had started to tear a bit, which led to him “inspecting” (e.g ripping) it even further. When I handed it over it was “as good as new”, when I got it back it was “almost invalid”.

Then, they (customs) didn’t even want to let us through to collect our bags. A transit visa apparently cost them money. They said, “The people in London should have sent your bags all the way to Christchurch”. They said, “We can make sure your bags get on the plane, so that you don’t have to go through customs (e.g cost us money). Come this way, and go directly to your gate.”

I said thanks.

In Christchurch customs told me Swedish passports are shit. They told me to “follow me” and “please sit” and “please wait” and “we will let you through with this passport, but be careful so it doesn’t rip all the way”.

I said thanks.

Then, the conveyor belt at the baggage claim told me, “Your bags were not on the plane”, followed by “the people in Melbourne seem to have f***ed it all up”.

I said thanks.

I left UK on Saturday the 18th of February and landed in Christchurch on the following Monday lunch time with an invalid passport and no luggage.

I said thanks.

The main reason for us flying out was to visit Willow’s best friend Elspeth Richardson. Elspeth moved to New Zealand in August 2006, with the prospect of it being better for her career as a doctor — ie she had lost faith in the NHS.

Not that many people seem to fly out from Europe to New Zealand for a two week holiday. Most visitors stop by during their “Around The World Trip”, just after they have been to Thailand or Singapore and do the whole country during a month or so. I do think that’s the best way to do it. We had two weeks and two weeks was not enough. Not even close - and we were only on the south island. Two weeks might be OK if you’re going with only one thing in mind; you’ve narrowed it down — e.g. doing amazing walks like Queen Charlotte Track or Milford Sounds — but not if you’re going to get a good bite of what New Zealand has to offer.

Before we went I didn’t know much about New Zealand. I knew it was a country the size of the United Kingdom, with nice scenery, low population and a lot of sheep.

It all as been proven correct. Except that ‘nice scenery’ should probably be ‘amazing scenery’.

Can I see myself moving out there?

No (but I did like this house).

At first I was totally blown of my feet by the amazing and untouched scenery (flying in from grey February London to hit a late New Zealand summer probably added fuel to that fire), but as the time passed a bitter aftertaste started to appear. It wasn’t that much behind the huge mountain but another huge mountain. On the other side of the beautiful peninsula was yet another beautiful peninsula.

I think being raised in a country like Sweden and its vain women has taught me to look beyond the facade.

It is a very very young country (read: since Europeans start occupying). The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in the Bay of Islands on 6 February 1840. The treaty is regarded as New Zealand’s foundation as a nation. That’s only 167 years ago. I’m not 100% sure, but I do think that it’s the young age that makes New Zealand feel a bit hollow and “amusement-park” like.

But, having said all that - I do want to go back for another visit.

1. Christchurch

   About 24 hours after we landed in Christchurch our luggage arrived, and we started our drive around the island.

2. Dunedin

   A nice little student town with a lot of Scottish inherits. Here we took the Taieri Gorge Railway (photo). I can also recommend the peninsula (photo).

3. Te Anau

   We stayed here to go Kayaking at Milford Sounds. We had a very nice accommodation(photo, photo).

4. Milford Sounds

   With an annual rainfall of 6813 mm on 182 days, we were very lucky to have wonderful weather during our day Kayaking in the sound. It was a beautiful day.

5. Fox Glacier

   From Milford Sound we drove to Fox Glacier, via Queenstown and Wakawa (photo). This is the part I wished we had scooped a bit more time for. It was lovely around these parts. A tip is to get off state highway #6 at Queenstown and drive the Crown Range Road via Cardrona to Wanaka(map). Crown Range Road is the highest part of New Zealand’s highways and a very scenic route (photo).

   The same day as we arrived to Fox Glacier we had a helicopter ride over the glacier (photo).

6. Franz Josef

   Bad weather (photo). Here we finally meet up with Hanky and Isak! Was very nice to see them, but I do think it will be even nicer to see them when they come past London on their way back to Sweden; in a more relaxed environment.

7. Christchurch

   Via Arthur’s Pass (photo) we drove back to Christchurch to pick up Elpeths parents.

8. Kaikora

   Swimming with dolphins. When I was told we were supposed to swim with dolphins I pictured a dolphin in a pool. Not 400 wild dolphins in the sea.

9. Picton

   We just stayed in Picton over night. If we had more time, I would have loved to go on the Queen Charlotte Track walk.

10. d’Urville Island

    To get to d’Urville Island, you first have to drive to French Pass, which is an amazing drive (photo), and then take a boat taxi (photo) out to the island. We had a first class bedroom view on the island (photo), but unfortunately, for me, the stay on this lovely island wasn’t as good as it could have been due to a huge abscess that appeared on my left butt cheek.

11. Nelson

    Beaches.

12. Blenheim

    On the way back from Nelson to Christchurch we did some wine tasting. I’m afraid most of the vineyards were a bit to commercialised for my taste. One that I did like was Fromm. They were Swiss and made wine “the European way”, and were actually one of the few places to use corks instead of screw caps.

13. Christchurch

    And home went.

Here’s how you can make your own

King of the road by Jenny Nordberg (via Made-In-England.org)

In a few hours, Willow and I are off to Edinburgh, Scotland, to pick up our new beautiful 4/2 Series Aga cooker. When I’m back I will tell you all about the cooker, my New Zealand holiday and this terrible curse of bad luck that seems to be haunting me…

Tomorrow is the the Nine Inch Nails concert I ordered tickets for back in November last year.

Unfortunately the tickets haven’t arrived… or — they have but not to me.

The odds are against me, but I truly hope that Seetickets can prevent bellow image, containing the signature from who ever signed for my special delivery letter, from being the only souvenir of my first ever live Nine Inch Nails experience.