Leveraged Intelligence

A Tribute to Fred Schott, Sr. on His Passing

This is the picture that James Schott, Carly’s betrothed, put in their new apartment yesterday of his beloved grandfather, Fred Schott, Sr.  Mr. Schott passed away this morning with his family by his side – including James who traveled the 800 miles to his bedside by car yesterday and James’ twin, Tim, who traveled from Denver.

Fred Sr. was the patriarch of the family I wrote of in an earlier post, Yesterday I Met the Fockers!  I only met Fred once, but I was highly impressed.  Very highly!

New Zealand Story: America Doesn’t Get It … Yet!

Americans are a bit slow to the mark when it comes to some things.  Why?  Well, we have a lot of either ocean or economic separation from the rest of the world.  Both of these are, of course, shrinking … so, we as Americans better start learning about the sports the world cares about!  Soccer and Rugby rule, mates, and we’d better get used to it.

First, I will do Rugby a bit better justice when I do a mini-review of the movie Invictus.  Until then, I will make fun of how ignorant the comic above shows that we are, especially when you consider that it will pass with the average American with no problem whatsoever.

You see, this particular match I happen to know about only because I have but one degree of separation from it: my genes were present at the match.  My daughter happened to be carrying them around at the time.  And, she brought Dad a souvenir:

Now, here is the funny part.  The reference to the match in the cartoon above is for June 26th while the match, as you can see, was held June 12th.  Don’t get me wrong.  The average American can be excused.  Even though it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.  We have SOOO much to learn about these sports and vuvuzelas and – well everything!

But, I will tell you one hopeful sign: Bill Clinton was sitting with Mick Jagger at the World Cup, so there is hope for us still!

New Zealand: Auckland: ‘The City of Sails’ Says ‘Kia Ora’

So many of the words and names of places in New Zealand are Maori words, Kia Ora meaning  literally "be well/healthy” in Māori but translated commonly as, “Hi!”  Indeed the name of New Zealand itself in Māori is Aoteoroa, usually translated as "The land of the long white cloud."  However, it gets tricky when you enter the New Zealand history and origins, though, as you will see along the way.  In this case, the use of Aoteoroa referred to just the North Island until the 20th Century and came into modern usage to mean all of New Zealand by non-Māori origins.

Speaking of Māori origins, we spent an hour in the Auckland Museum and they referred to the migration, relatively recent in historical terms, of the Māori to New Zealand.  They showed the migration as coming from numerous Polynesian islands about 900 years ago and showed how the Tiki became the Teke protection symbols, etc.  The Māori also subscribe to this theory from what we were told.  It is not until we got to Rotorua that we heard information that casts this theory into doubt, so stay tuned …

In Māori, Auckland’s name is Tāmaki-makau-rau, but it is typically referred to as Auckland.  One-third of New Zealand’s population lives in Auckland, but that really refers to the following region shown in red:

Auckland City is the major cosmopolitan city of New Zealand, though, and voted in the top 10 most livable cities in the world.  Settled by the Māori in 1340, it was settled by Europeans 500 years later.  It has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world and is composed of 185 different ethnicities.

This is a city (and, indeed a country) in which you just feel SAFE.  The police don’t even carry weapons, although that doesn’t mean there is no crime; but even watching the news there you have very little sense of person-on-person aggression.  It is also a very clean city, somewhat like the cleanliness of a Calgary in Canada.  They are very green conscious in New Zealand and there are not only trash cans (or, ahem, rubbish bins) in the City, but also recycle bins.

Quite a modern city, it has excellent public transport, primarily via bus.  To give you an idea of how nicely focused on public transit they are, here is a picture of a public transit center:

Note also, from the street level how varied, yet harmonious the architecture is, easily blending from old to new.  Indeed, even the color of many of the buildings is pleasing, such as the Ferry Building:

and the Civic Theatre (which was used in the filming of King Kong):

Regardless of where you go in the city, one feature can be located, the signature piece of the skyline, The Sky Tower:

Built for the Sky City Casino complex – originally for Harrahs – it stretches upward 328 meters(1,076 ft).  The antenna on top is the worlds largest FM Combiner sending out signals for WiFi, Radio, TV, etc.  From within the Casino complex it looks like this:

It is very difficult to see at this size, but at the lower right hand part of the ring in this picture are two cables reaching to the ground and a person can be attached at the top and dropped to the ground about 50 mph.  The New Zealanders and those visiting there are really into being tossed off of high structures of one kind or another, bungee jumping being a very popular activity there.

The Sky Tower has a rotating restaurant at the top and the spoked, clear area you see is a glass observation deck (with a railing around the edge).  We never got up there, part of the reason being conservation of cash.  We did justify many expenditures with, “It is just New Zealand dollars!” at many points, but that logic can only carry you so far!

Carly and James’ (Carly’s fiancée) high school back in California is named Mt. Eden High School.  Well, it just so happens that the main volcanic peak right at Auckland proper is named Mt. Eden after George Eden, Earl of Auckland (after whom the city was named), the Viceroy of India at that time.  New Zealand is a British Commonwealth and many people there cannot actually identify their own Prime Minister, but rather identify their government more with the Queen of England (who, by the way, has the power to dismiss their government if she sees fit).  They know the American government well, though!

We climbed Mt. Eden and this is the view of the skyline from there:

On this trip, we climbed a large number of hills and mountains.  I did OK for an old man!  Notice how you can see that Sky Tower behind James’ head.  Here is the volcanic crater for Mt. Eden and notice the size of the people at the bottom … who are NOT supposed to be there because of its ecological delicacy and the fact that it is a sacred Māori site:

At the top, there is a sundial with distances to places all over the world:

There are many park spaces in Auckland and I liked the way that they left so many large open areas in them.  Next to one of them, Victoria Park, they had a delightful shopping area that I would highly recommend to anyone traveling there and looking for souvenirs.  You can actually afford them at this market!

Food there is good, but that is not why you go to New Zealand.  Still, it is definitely not a minus.   Note for Shackman: Yes, I DID have some Steinlagers and they are every bit as good as you said!  We actually went to pubs at some points to eat and one of the last pubs in which we ate in Auckland the front was completely open to the street, another indication of just how secure and safe the city is.  They also seem to have little difficulty with homelessness, having only seen two homeless people in Auckland while we were there.

The weather was and is quite mild, but a word of warning: always have some type of rain gear with you!  Rain develops and comes from nowhere in this island nation and it is easy to get soaked.  Our first day in Auckland, Carol and I did not heed Carly’s warnings because the day and the forecast were so clear.  We paid that evening!  But, we were always ready after that.

There you have a snapshot encapsulation of Auckland.  Obviously, you don’t spend as short a time in Auckland as we did and know a city with any depth, but the naive perspective of the newcomer has advantages, too.  I hope you enjoyed the min-tour!

For more information, I encourage you to start at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland

New Zealand: The Trip Finally Begins …

You know how a trip seems like it is never going to begin?  You prepare, imagine how it will be, prepare a bit more … and ultimately over-pack!  Didn’t matter that we had kitchen sinks and spare cars in those suitcases – at least that is what they felt like – we were ready!  So ready, that we got to the airport BEFORE the 3 hours suggested for an international flight.  So ready, that we end up sitting and twiddling our thumbs after going through all of security, etc., and sitting at our gate.  READY!

The Air New Zealand plane is a Boeing 777 and it is very nicely outfitted.  Dinner, wine, movie, nap, breakfast and our 12 1/2 hour flight is done.  New Zealand is five hours earlier than California – but it is tomorrow.  So, we fly not only over the International Date Line, we fly right over Easter between dinner and breakfast, in celebration of which they give each of us a Cadbury Easter Egg.

Editor’s Note: I know this is the least interesting part of the journey for the reader, but I really want to chronicle the trip.  Don’t worry … we will get into the action soon.

Carly and one of her flatmates, Andy, take us back to their place where her other flatmate, Sherwin, feed us breakfast again and we spend a little time meeting the boys (really nice guys!), take a quick shower, and head off to see Massey University, where she goes to school over there.  It is really a very pretty school and we are already starting to become enchanted – although it isn’t much different from California yet:

We take the bus to the heart of the city and haul our suitcases off to our hostel, a pretty little house Carol and I have all to ourselves.  Give us a couple of weeks to clean it and it really has some potential!

Editor’s Note: Living in hostels is the way that MANY people travel through New Zealand.  Uh, younger people, backpackers.  No worries!  We are game.

But, the last picture in that series, the mystery picture, is a crack between the boards in the floor of our bedroom looking down at the kitchen!  We don’t fall through, though, LOL.  Welcome to the other side of hippy hostel living…

Enough for today!  Tomorrow we’ll take a tour of Auckland!

New Zealand: An Introduction to Wonder

Reputed by many to be the most beautiful nation on this planet, the island nation of New Zealand provides one stunning vista after another.  Carly, Carol and I took 4,275 pictures of this incredible land over a twelve-day period, twelve very active days of ten mile hikes through mountains, across beaches, beside glaciers and through verdant plains.  Since returning home, I have been working to organize a presentation worthy of what we saw, what we experienced and what we shared with a fine people.

Notice on the left-hand side of the blog a new pair of categories below The World and Its Cultures, categories for New Zealand and Italy (which will be covered after New Zealand), the two trips across the ocean that the three of us have taken.  If you wish to quickly go through the entries for either, simply click on the category and you will be filtered to only those entries.

Added to our little group of sojourners this trip was Carly’s fiancée, James.  Don’t worry, he will make his way into many pictures – but someone had to take the one you see above.  I will let you know soon what the context of that picture is, but let it serve now as a good introduction to a stunning landscape that will unfold.  You will also discover a culture possibly quite different from your assumptions; part European, part Polynesian, close to nature but not at all primitive; part British, part Maori and a lot Hippie.

I invite you to join us on one of the most memorable adventures of our lives, a true trip to paradise!  As the Kiwis themselves say, this trip was SWEET AS!

We Should Be Home!

We should have just arrived back home in San Francisco.

I bet we are tired!!!

Not Sure Where I Am Today

I think I’m back on the North Island today, but the crystal ball is a bit hazy!  Oh … wait … it is my eyeballs that are getting a bit hazy!

But, I’m smiling!

With a Friend of One of Carol’s Patients in Methven

He will show us Christchurch and was kind enough to rent the car for us with a company discount that we are driving through the South Island.  Nice is an understatement!  He also has helped us work out our itinerary.

Here is a picture of Christchurch, out of which we will fly back to Auckland.

I THINK Today Is the Day for Milford Sound

We will be taking a bus from Queenstown to Milford Sound and then taking a boat cruise on the Sound.

We Should Be In Queenstown

It hate to see people so deprived of beautiful surroundings!  We are planning to stay a couple of days.