Posts with tag: auckland

Letters from the Southern Man

Migrating is more than just filling in forms and submitting paperwork, its a complex process that will test even the most resilient of people. 

Understanding New Zealand is paramount to your immigration survival and to give you a realistic view of the country, its people and how we see the world, read our weekly Southern Man blogs. Often humorous, sometimes challenging, but always food for thought.

Bikes, Bums & Early Auckland

 

I spend so much time overseas exploring other people’s countries that I spend precious little time exploring and enjoying my own.  And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that saddens me a bit.

Having a beach house doesn’t help. Don’t get me wrong and I don’t want to sound like some pretentious prat but when you have access to a beach house you tend to want to spend your time there to the exclusion of spending that precious leisure time elsewhere. 

So it is both a real blessing disappearing regularly to your favourite part of paradise but equally it can be a little restrictive.

So, I have decided that this year I am going to see more of New Zealand and have two trips planned to Central Otago this year – one to Queenstown to play golf in November and on the immediate horizon I am really excited at the prospect of spending the next week completing the Otago Rail Trail with my wife and a few close friends.

This involves mountain bikes, plenty of pub stops, mind blowing scenery and I suspect a rather sore bum.

If you haven’t been to Central Otago add it to your must see list. It is barren, rocky and always brown because in most parts it receives less than 100mm of rain a year.  It is like the Great Karoo in South Africa meets Afghanistan (without the roadside bombs) or Iran without the Mullahs.  It is New Zealand’s ‘high country’ where the plains meet the sky and the air is so clear mountains tens of kilometres away look like you can reach out and touch them, where the sky is so big and so wide it makes you feel insignificant and the size of an ant. It is a place where the weather is sunny and hot in summer and sunny and cold in winter.

Luckily we will be there when it is neither extreme and we are set to enjoy early autumn which will offer lovely warm days with daytime temperatures in the low to mid 20s Celsius but very cold nights with temperatures as low as 2-5 degrees. 

With the changing seasons there is some chance of snow up in the mountains but that is highly unlikely (I sincerely hope so because we can only take 10kgs of luggage and I am an Aucklander and don’t possess ‘snow clothes’).

Perfect for golf. We’ll see about mountain bikes.

I will report back on this next week if I can.

One of the attractions of Central Otago for me is that it is so full of history and represents a region of the country that has been settled by Europeans and a few keen Chinese longer than most other parts. Sparsely occupied (if at all) by Maori when gold was discovered in the early 19th century the population exploded when the gold rush cranked into life. Given the scarcity of trees in that region the architecture represents a period of Victorian England meets often poor but eternally hopeful gold prospectors and settlers and many of the old cob and stone buildings that are still standing have been turned into boutique hotels, B and Bs and the like.

As I thought about what we are likely to see next week and enjoy in parts a landscape and New Zealand heritage little changed in 150 years it occurred to me that migrants tend to look forward at the new life that awaits, the city they have landed in and the new country ripe for exploration and seldom do they look back – except in those times of inevitable homesickness especially among the newly arrived. Those that have always lived some place often look back in time and at our history to better understand who we are and what made us and our world view what it is.

As a self-confessed history junkie I have been reading a wonderful book these past few days by local Journalist Gordon McGlaughlan.  Its title is ‘Auckland – A Life and Times’ and as a sort of ‘Brief History of…’ is fascinating and well worth reading for those who have an interest in my home town, why it is here, who settled it and the forces, both natural and human that have shaped it to become what it is.

It is full of wonderful facts and insights. 

As a keen geographer and Aucklander I have always been aware of the massive ‘reclamation’ that went on during the 1800s of Auckland’s foreshore. The soft sandstone cliffs in many parts were levelled by pick and shovel, sometimes explosives and carted down the faces barrow load by barrow load to create, through the destruction of some beautiful bays, flat land for the rapidly growing port and commercial activity. This book has allowed me to roll back the years in my mind to a place and time when the rail lines and yards, the wharves, many of the coastal roads and blocks of high rise buildings were not there and picture a place where in the 1830s only a tented ‘city’ existed. Where streams flowed down the valleys of bracken covered hills, slowed and accumulated in swamps of reed and raupo, where eels swam and freshwater crayfish hid among the rocks before the waters that sustained them flowed into the sea through mangroves and coastal estuaries.

Fascinatingly for a city that enjoys more than its fair share of rain one of the biggest constraints on the early city was the availability of fresh water. How ironic after the wet, seeming ‘summerless’, summer we Aucklanders have just had. Although in the 1830s there were only 1500-2000 people living in Auckland fresh water sources quickly became polluted and undrinkable.

There were during those early years only a few sources – the stream known as Horotiu to local Maori that ran down from the ridge along the valley now covered by Queen Street was the most important. Queen Street for those of you who have not walked it is our main Central City road that starts at the ridge now dominated by Karangahape Road at its southern end and which ends at Customs Street which crosses it a block away from the harbour.

About two thirds of the way to the harbour this stream pooled in a large swamp about where Aotea Square and a massive underground carpark is now. It then meandered down through the valley before once again entering  a wetland and mixing with the gentle tides that lap this harbour.

Now that same stream is imprisoned in large concrete pipes that feed storm water and the remnants of the steam itself into the Waitemata Harbour.

As I type this I am looking out over Queen Street from my office and imagining a landscape not covered in high rise buildings but a valley cut by Horotiu and guarded by two gently chiselled hills which once would have looked like any valley in this part of the North Island – towering Podocarp forests of Totara and probably Kauri - that most majestic of trees. With Tui, Kereru (native wood pigeon), kaka (native parrot) and all manner of birds wheeling and diving over and through the canopy. At some point Kiwi would have been poking and prodding the ground looking for fat native earthworms.

Now we have glass, concrete and tarmac and the nearest thing to fauna are flocks of pigeons that strut and preen on the window eaves of the oldest buildings that overlook Horotiu’s final resting place.

I have also learned that in the middle of Auckland University (about ten minutes walk from our offices) there exists to this day a fresh water spring which continues to flow with the clearest water that has been filtered over hundreds if not thousands of years by the volcanic rocks of the region. 

It is now piped directly into the city’s storm water system which seems a real waste. A clean source of the freshest Aotearoa H2O not being consumed by the good folk of Auckland and thirsty University students is a real shame.

Another major source of fresh water came from a spring that bubbled its way up through the scoria on the northern slopes of that iconic volcanic cone I have written of before, Maungawhau or Mount Eden, and then wound its way down toward what would become Newmarket to collect in a large swamp in what is now Khyber Pass (another imprisoned stream). It was here the first of the big breweries set up shop and until recently, produced some of the world’s finest beers. They needed that fresh water.

It’s funny when you so take for granted the landscape you view daily to stop and consider occasionally what it once looked like. To consider that the water that comes from the tap that you do not think twice about would only 150 years ago have been thought of as an absolute luxury.

Each Aucklander today consumes around 300 litres of water. From about 1830-1850 in Auckland everyone relied on buckets and springs or rainwater. A wash would have been hands and face and a jug and wash basin. It is recorded most of the local population washed every six weeks. I can imagine how nice they’d have been to stand beside on a baking hot summer day in Auckland. No thanks…..

We lost Horotiu but gained personal hygiene.

And next week I am going to see a part of New Zealand that has changed little since the last Ice Age.

Can’t wait.

Until next week

Southern Man - Iain MacLeod

Auckland hits 15 million souls

Somewhere in Auckland earlier this week the city’s population increased by one to reach 1.5 million.

Chances were that the baby was of Polynesian ethnicity, has four or five brothers and sisters, its mother is 30 years old and our newest Aucklander was born in South Auckland. (Stop Press – the news media reported yesterday she was a little girl born of Samoan parents at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland – now how was that for a prediction?? -Ed). 

How this city has changed over the past 25 years.

As my wife and I enjoyed a stroll up the spectacular (and thankfully extinct) volcanic cone of Mount Eden/Maungawhau last night we paused (for breath - its a steep climb) and discussed how big this city has got. Sky scrapers, the Sky Tower, a huge light drenched 24 hour port, bustling harbour, rainforest covered Waitakere Ranges to the west, the eight lane freeway snaking through Auckland's heart and sprawling suburbs stretching as far as the eye can see.

I for one love it as do most of the people I know. 

It is not just that the population has increased by some 500,000 in the past 15 years but the face of the city is literally changing. 

Auckland now has the most ethnically diverse population in the country. I have often touched on the fact that it is increasingly difficult to know what it is to be a New Zealander - and nowhere more so than in Auckland. With so many different cultures here each has its own makeup - some combination of local versus imported values, standards and ideals. When I was a small boy in the late 1960s and early 1970s I knew one Chinese boy (his dad owned the local green grocers). I went through my primary school years with one Pacific Islander that I recall – a boy from Tonga and I only recall his runny nose and penchant for doughnuts and potato chips (crisps - I was green with envy and often tried to swap my egg sandwiches for some of his lunch). Everyone I knew was basically white and 'European'. Immigrants, such as there were, were either British or occassionally Dutch. South Africans were as rare as hen's teeth, Indians were few and far between and the Chinese were all in the future. It was incredibly monocultural. And dare I say culturally very dull.

My own children on the other hand enjoyed the company of 41 nationalities at their local primary school 30 years later.

A quarter of a century ago 23% of Auckland's population was born overseas. By 2006 this had increased to 37%. It is now somewhere north of 42% and climbing. 

Around 53% of the city’s population now identify with the label ‘European’. I confess that it is a label I detest - I am not a European - Germans, French and Polish people are European - I am proudly Pakeha - a Maori word describing New Zealanders of European descent. My father's family have been here for over 150 years and I am a 5th generation Pakeha New Zealander. 

It is estimated that around 27% of people in this city identify as ‘Asian’, 17% Pacific Islanders and 12% Maori.

As you might expect in the migrant city Auckland has become, many identify with more than one ethnic group hence those numbers adding up to slightly over 100% (in case you thought I couldn't count).

There I was yesterday afternoon pondering this evolving Auckland standing while in the local Asian Supermarket (and I mean supermarket, not convenience store) of which there are two within two minutes drive of my home in Mount Eden.  I was in there buying some pork. That is a meat my family have never traditionally eaten but if I may say so myself with the help of some marinade manufacturer from Shanghai I make rather good Pork Spare Ribs. 

Two things struck me during the visit to their butchery given this is the week we welcomed our 1.5 millionth Aucklander to town. The first (vegetarians and vegans should look away or skip the next few lines) was the choice of flesh is basically pork (including their tails, ears - the mind boggles but good on them for a zero waste policy -heads, feet, bones, intestines and other body parts I could only speculate as to their function, or chicken (including their feet, their kidneys and assorted other bits of their deceased fowl selves (I assume feathers are inedible or no doubt something would be done with those as well!). A tray of ducks' heads greeted me with their bald heads and their unblinking eyes. Now you don't get any of that down at the local 'New Zealand' supermarket. 

There was little in the way of beef (except their stomachs, intestines and God only knows what else) and no lamb, both of which are of course two historical staples of the New Zealand diet. So now we buy more pork because we can't buy the lamb without going to another supermarket.

The other thing that struck me is that when I am in there 95% of the shoppers are Chinese, everyone is speaking Chinese and most of the labeling is in Chinese - a habit I find frustrating because most of the time I have no idea what the bottles and packages contain and the shop owner is missing out potentially on my business (and my neighbours who don't read Chinese but cook a lot of 'Asian' food).

And there is the rub. These ethnic communities have in many cases reached a critical mass and they are now able to trade and do business among themselves in their native languages without having to communicate with nor worry about selling anything to me.

This can cause some locals discomfort - especially the 'we should all be the same and this is New Zealand so speak English and integrate or bugger off' brigade. I am pretty relaxed about it. Their children all go to the local schools, have accents like my children, think the All Blacks are the beginning and end of world sport, can't work out why Brendon McCullum doesn't score more runs at cricket and identify with most of the fashions, values and aspirations of their school mates.

All over this city now there are pockets of migrants turning whole suburbs into their own. Indians in Mount Roskill, South Africans in Browns Bay and Howick, Chinese in Botany, Mount Eden and Sandringham, Filipinos in Glenfield, Vietnamese in Onehunga, Samoans, Tongans and other Pacific Islanders in East Tamaki, Otara and Mangere.

I'm not into empty platitudes but I love this diversity and find none of this threatening (and that I hasten to add has nothing to do with my day job). The diversity does enrich my city.

Perhaps our 1.5 millionth Aucklander wasn't a Samoan New Zealander in reality. Maybe she was a Pakeha like me, or maybe Tongan, Fijian, Chinese, South African, Vietnamese, Polish or Brazillian. I really don't care.

To me she is just another Aucklander and a very special one.

Iain Macleod - Southern Man

Year end wrap up!

 

This is my last Southern Man Letter from New Zealand for 2011.

My bags are packed, I’m going to do the family thing and then it is off to the peace and quiet of Lang’s Beach in northland for three weeks of not very much.

What a year it has been.

It began as 2010 finished – uncomfortable trading conditions thanks to our Government’s ongoing (but unofficial) cut in migrant numbers, flat property markets in the countries so many of our migrants are sourced from, fewer people being able to realise the equity in their homes that funds the move to New Zealand, a tight labour market here making the prospect of finding work (often to secure residence) daunting and the uncertainty in the global economy causing many a would be migrant to ask themselves if they were jumping out of a local fire into a New Zealand frying pan.

I can tell you though that it has ended on a very positive note – for us anyway. The last few months have been pretty good. Although we all have to work far harder for our clients given their heightened fears about what they are doing and the risks they are taking I am not aware of any client who did not find work and we haven’t had a residence case declined yet that has meant our ‘money back guarantee’ required a refund.

I suspect 2012 will continue to be challenging given the uncertainty in international markets.

It is funny though how we view the world. This week there was a business headline in the local rag that trumpeted a fall in business confidence in the last quarter of 2011. Reading through the survey what it actually said was ‘I am worried about everyone else’s business but actually we are doing pretty well in our own and think the next year will be better than this year for us’.

This was a typical survey finding over the past two years here. We worry about the economy but feel relaxed about our own prospects. Weird how it works but everyone I know from manufacturing through construction to real estate is feeling positive about the year ahead.

New Zealand remains well placed to ride it out with low Government debt (albeit climbing) and everyone I know doing their utmost to pay down their own private debt.

The next few years will see further reform of the welfare system which is simply too generous to too many people and the public servants will be twitching as Government signals they will have to keep delivering quality ‘service’ with fewer people. Should be interesting!

Our Australian operation, Immagine Australia has made great strides and it has been a lot of fun learning Australian policy (just to prove our own Government policy makers aren’t the only people on Earth who understand little about migration and the realities of labour markets). Really good fun to use Australia as the welcome doormat to New Zealand.

We are looking forward to growing that business through 2012.

And so it ends for another year.

Christmas here is not so much religious any more, it is a day pass from the day job. With summer heating up it marks the first day of a well deserved summer break. Beaches, books, good food and family time. If you are lucky a few days at the beach – its free, its clean and the water warming with every passing day.

For me it is as I say off to the beach house up north. The fishing rods are ready, the new fire pit has the wood stacked in it, the wine is stacked, the freezer full of food.

All that remains is for me to thank my dedicated team of consummate professionals for their efforts this year. Jo, Kay, Chris, Paul and Karina all take this break knowing that not only is it well deserved but they can pat themselves on the back for another year in which they made a real difference to people’s lives. We all know how hard migration is – leaving friends and family, homes. Security, jobs and settling in a new country is never easy and is always stressful. This small but dedicated team takes away so much of the fear and I can but thank them all and salute them on behalf of all our clients.

And to finish on a lighter note a Christmas ditty put together by Paul. I promise it won’t fry your computer but will bring a smile to your face.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/KYzYHLJm15Q8DbQCZOWG

Take care, look after yourselves, have as Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012.

Until, well, next year

 

Iain MacLeod - Southern Man

 

Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island is often referred as the “jewel” of the Hauraki Gulf.

Lying 45 minutes ferry ride to the east of downtown Auckland it is an island of incredible contrasts and beauty.

I had the opportunity of spending the day exploring the island with my wife, cruising in her VW Beetle with the soft top down this past Sunday.  The reason for being there is that a very good friend of mine is the Chairman of a Trust which he set up to honour the brief life of his 13 year old daughter who died suddenly a number of years ago of meningococcal disease.  The Trust raises money to support the locals with medical, travel and accommodation expenses given if they have anything serious they often need to come to the mainland for treatment.

The Trust that he established 11 years ago organizes an annual “garden safari” and he musters the support of 80 volunteers to make it happen.  People like me were afforded the privilege of buying a ticket, putting the car on the ferry, heading down the harbour and enjoying a wonderful day in the sun touring some of the most magnificent properties I have ever seen.

Waiheke is a very interesting place.  Until about 25 years ago it was very much viewed as a hippie hangout where dropouts and dope smokers used to go to escape Auckland’s rat race and ‘do’ pottery.  It has an almost Mediterranean climate which sees 25% less rainfall than downtown Auckland, with around 750mm, even though it is literally only 20 kilometres down the harbour. 

The soil is poor and predominantly clay and in summer baked to the hardness of concrete.  After European settlement this island which is 20 kilometres long was largely cleared of its native forest and turned into farmland.  Around 20 years ago, however, Aucklanders with money along with migrants or foreign investors realized what a treasure this island was with its pristine beaches with golden sand, clear waters and many safe anchorages and harbours which was perfect for building holiday homes, permanent residences and parking the super yacht.

Vineyards and olive groves were planted and are now common.  Some of New Zealand’s best world class wines are produced on Waiheke; there are now many cafés and restaurants and it has become a bit of a Mecca for day trippers and boaties of Auckland who will often head down there for a night or two.

One thing which really struck me about Waiheke is that it is something of a microcosm of New Zealand but without much in the way of middle classes. In some ways it represents what New Zealand used to be i.e. a population overwhelmingly of European ethnicity unlike Auckland which is these days so multi ethnic and diverse with 40% of its residents not having been born in New Zealand. 

Equally and of some surprise if not shock is the amount of wealth that is now down on that island.

Nestled (or standing out like the proverbial dogs bollocks) among magnificent rolling gardens attended by full-time garden staff are stunning architecturally designed houses with helipads alongside and some even have landings to tie up the super yacht or very large pleasure craft.

That these people have opened up their properties to the Trust is quite wonderful and allowed a few nosey Aucklanders to get a glimpse of some of the sculpture and other artworks these people possess.  I can tell you it is jaw dropping.

Sometimes clients who come to New Zealand question how much wealth is here but I can tell you after an afternoon on Waiheke it becomes quite obvious – there is far, far more than what first appearances might suggest.  I only visited five properties and at least two of them had sculptures in their garden which cost tens of thousands of dollars each.

A close family member of mine who met us out there also told me of a friend of his who recently spent NZ$500,000 on a sculpture for her property.  I understand she has several.  She is, with due respect, a ‘no name” in New Zealand as in if I mentioned her name to any of my friends no-one would ever have heard of her, yet she is clearly utterly loaded.  Out on Waiheke she is one of many.

At the other end of the spectrum I believe a few of the hippies or their offspring are still there.  With their unkempt hair and sandals many are driving around in cars that wouldn’t fetch much more than $200.  Their houses are modest.

I suspect that there are many people out on that island who are reliant on Social Welfare to a greater or lesser extent and it makes for interesting public meetings from all accounts.  For example, one of the wealthy owners wants to put in a marina for the boaties who use the island or who live on it.  Of course those of more “green” persuasion are fervently opposed and I understand that it can take an eternity to find compromise and decide on whether projects should go ahead.

For all that it is an utterly wonderful environment and it must be great to raise kids out there.  We sat in one garden, perched on a sandstone promontory of land watching a flock of Gannets diving into a bay 150 metres below us and coming up with their mouths full of fish.  Other friends of ours were out on Waiheke enjoying the same garden safari and they were lucky to sit in one of the local cafés and watch three Orca (killer whales) cruise through the bay below them.

As Waiheke has grappled with population growth and sub-division it is, to my way of thinking, another great example of how coastal development and compromise can, in fact, enhance the natural environment.  Waiheke has incredibly strict environmental controls designed to protect the intrinsic beauty of the place, yet it does not stifle development.  It seems to me most people who live out there are also incredibly generous and some of the extremely wealthy people have covenanted large areas of their land and are allowing it to return to its natural state.  Native bird life abounds. The fishing is sublime. The sea is clear and warm.

There were twelve gardens on display and we only got to see five.  Or should I say my wife got to see five, when I got to the fifth it was such a warm sunny day I couldn’t get out of her VW Beetle Cabriolet but reclined the seat, tipped my Panama hat over my face and proceeded to doze for an hour.  Sublime. Paradise...

If you live in Auckland or have recently moved here, spend a day or two out at Waiheke – take your car on the ferry, it is not too expensive and enjoy the beaches, the secluded and private bays, the vineyards, the olive plantations, the cafés and restaurants, the fresh air and the beautiful scenery.

Seminars – Malaysia & Singapore

Don’t forget our final seminars of the year will take place in Kuala Lumpur on 26 November 11.00 a.m. and Singapore a week later on 3 December at 11.00 a.m.

We are not going to be back in that neck of the woods until March next year so if you wish to attend or have friends or family considering a move to New Zealand I woudl urge them to attend.

Until next week...

 

 

Iain MacLeod - Southern Man

Life in the (big) City

I was a little reluctant to go live with this piece and few have created in me more angst. I’m either going to sound like an Environmental Crusader or a middle aged control freak busy body!

But this blog is about my take on this part of the world so here goes. You all get the chance to post your comments and your feedback would be gratefully received. 

I have often written about how my city is changing.

Sometimes the changes are subtle and sometimes they are not.

So much of the change is positive and for the better but at other times I feel some of the city’s inhabitants might just be in danger of losing their humanity a little. Becoming a little more selfish. Speaking as an Aucklander (in the sense that to be an Aucklander is not necessarily the same as to be a New Zealander and our values might increasingly differ from the other inhabitants of this fair land) our sense of community and awareness of one another is arguably diminishing which is at odds with the way we have historically perceived ourselves - open, friendly, egalitarian, sensitive to others and tolerant. Or, and this is meant as a blunt warning (good advice?) to my own client base, perhaps it’s not the locals who are changing but migrants who are arriving and bringing with them attitudes and behaviours that can at times be viewed as, well, foreign.

So in the interests of helping migrants settle here allow me a wee rant – call it Cultural Assimilation 101.

Auckland is home to 1.4 million people and covers a huge area making it the 5th biggest city in area in the world (bet you didn’t know that). Auckland now has a population density greater than a city like Melbourne.

As a consequence and especially in downtown Auckland where I work we are having to physically interact more and more with other people – or ignore them. 

I like walking down my suburban street, smiling and offering a ‘Good Morning’, ‘Hi’ or similar greeting to those who I pass. I am not looking to stop and chat but a simple acknowledgement of your fellow man can go a long way. It’s just what we do here…..

I appreciate in downtown Auckland it is not possible to greet everyone – for starters people will think you are loony (and in my case I concede they might be right) or in terms of simple expediency you’d never get to where you are going given there are so many people.

However, there are plenty of examples of how new arrivals understandably bring with them behaviours that are quite ‘normal’ in their country of origin but interpreted quite differently by locals. 

It appears, for example, to be absolutely acceptable to gather in a small group of three or four people on the footpath outside my office and force every other pedestrian to walk around you – even if this means stepping in the gutter to do so.

Or the drivers that don’t let other cars merge into their lane. Aucklanders, to be fair are not as bad as drivers in many other countries and thank goodness there are still plenty of drivers who will let you in. This I should also add is not a behaviour migrants have a monopoly on but it is true to say that certain immigrant groups do at best appear oblivious to other road users and be over represented in the ‘I’m the only person I’m aware of on the road’ group.

Or my local dairy (convenience store) owner here in our own historic and beautiful High Street who every morning enjoys a couple of cancer sticks and when he has finished chucks them in the gutter. I bite my tongue every time I walk past his store as he is either standing there poised to flick a butt into the street or there is a small pile of two already lying at my feet. Maybe I should just man up and explain to him that as a new New Zealander I want to know if he ever gives any thought as to where his cigarette butts go once they have been washed into the city’s storm water system.

I know the answer – into my harbour where I like to fish and my children swim – but he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care.

I have never said anything – I don’t want to be accused of being racist, or insensitive or rude to a migrant but it is clear that where he comes from the road is a rubbish bin and once out of sight his personal rubbish is out of mind.

Should, dear reader, I be saying something?

Well I now do. I am tired of it (but equally am a little concerned that having written this I am starting to sound ever so slightly like the Gestapo….).

A few weeks ago I was walking downtown to a favourite Dim Sum restaurant to have lunch with a good mate of mine and this fellow walker was about a meter away from a rubbish bin when he dropped his cigarette butt and extinguished  it with his boot. I couldn’t help myself – I asked him why he would do that when 3 feet in front of him was a metal rubbish bin designed for such things?

My friend put his hands over his face and kept walking. But I thought “Bugger it, this is my city as well – this guy is just lazy. If it was a KFC packet he wouldn’t do it so why do smokers think our footpaths are their personal ashtrays?”

The old fella simply stared at me. He wasn’t angry – I think he was a bit surprised that someone had pulled him up on this. 

I did notice that he did not pick up the cigarette butt. And being the consummate Diplomat I am, I didn’t push it.

My only hope is when he sucked his next one to death he might dispose of the butt in an appropriate receptacle.

A few years ago the then Mayor of Auckland absurdly copped it as being a racist for stopping a young man in the street, who happened to be of Asian ethnicity and telling him that while spitting in the street where he comes from might be acceptable he would prefer it if he kept his gobs to himself rather than shared them with the good folk of Auckland’s premier shopping and business district.

I couldn’t believe it!

Some of you might wonder if the Southern Man hasn’t turned into a middle aged grump but really am I wrong to point this out and be frustrated by it? 

You want to smoke, then smoke. All I ask is that as a fellow Aucklander you use rubbish bins.

If you want to congregate in small groups, wonderful, just pull over to the left and get out of the flow of pedestrians.

If you are driving – remember you aren’t the only car on the road and being aware of those around you is not a bad thing. And learning the local road rules isn’t always the worst idea.

We are all products of our environment – of that I am sure.

I am not cross about these things, there is no anger and I don’t believe I need counselling – I just observe things. And some of the things I observe I wouldn’t have 20 years ago.

My city is changing and those that are new to it need to adapt to us and we to them. 

That’s what migration is all about.

Seminars – don’t forget the last round for this year is currently underway in South Africa (Johannesburg is done, Durban and Cape Town next week) followed by Singapore and Malaysia at month’s end. If you are interested in attending or you know anyone who might like to – they can register here.

Until next week...

It's Spring in Auckland...

It’s spring in Auckland and I love this time of year.

There’s something about it for those of us who are lucky enough to enjoy more than two seasons. Here in Auckland we tend to get four of them of equal length although there are those who will tell you we can get all four before lunch.

September tantalises with the summer to come. It dangles the possibilities of warm nights and hot days.

It speaks of winter nights fading quietly into the warmth of an approaching summer.

As the nights get shorter and days lengthen there is a palpable sense of renewal.

In the first week of each September my street explodes into a riot of cerise colour as the blossom trees that line it wake up slowly from their winter slumber. The hum of bees as they seek out the sweet nectar contained in those flowers fills the trees.

The Tui, a native bird of the honey eater family sit in the tops of these trees calling their melodic song to rivals. A beautiful bird, about the size of a very large Starling, it has plumage of stunning dark metallic green, with a white tuft of plumage under its throat. They are without any doubt one of my favourite native birds. These nectar feeders have surged in numbers in recent years as more and more Aucklanders plant native, nectar producing plants in their gardens. They can be quite aggressive with one another and it isn’t unusual to see a dozen or more chasing one another through and between the lines of trees. 

In Cornwall Park, that wonderful park that sits under Maungakiekie or One Tree Hill (now sadly treeless but that’s another story) the year’s newly born lambs bounce and ping among the daffodils, now in full bloom.

Across the city and through Auckland’s Domain the Oak trees with swollen buds are bursting into new growth. The colour of spring leaves is something that screams spring to me – emerald green, juicy green. Want to turn it into salad green.

In the Hauraki Gulf the Snapper and other inshore fish will be gathering and looking for food as they prepare for spawning in early January.

My sons are putting away the football boots and looking for their cricket bats in the garden shed.

Although Auckland doesn’t really get cold (as in England or North American cold) winter can be wet but we seem to have been blessed once again this year with a very mild and dry winter. We had, as you may have read previously, a couple of cold snaps which lasted a few days and even resulted a month or so with snow flurries for a few minutes.

Although the temperatures now are only 2-3 degrees warmer than those of the winter months it is amazing just how different the temperature feels. A 17 degree day, remembering that temperatures are measured in the shade, makes the temperature in the sun around 23-24 degrees. Add to that Auckland’s humidity and the comfort readings are generally a few degrees warmer than the temperature might suggest.

While we aren’t out of the winter woods just yet the warm days increasingly outnumber the cool.

Winter coats are being increasingly left in their wardrobes and the shorts are making an appearance.

Things can still be a bit temperamental in terms of the weather and spring brings with it four or five calm clear and sunny days followed by a day or two of unsettled weather with rain and occasional thunderstorms.

The cafes and restaurants that open up to the streets are peeling back the plastic walls that protect diners during winter and the large sun umbrellas bloom in increasing numbers.

One of the great changes to downtown Auckland is allowing those that live and work in its environs enjoy the warmer weather even more. Running parallel to or perpendicular to Auckland’s main road, Queen Street, many of the narrow streets are being turned into shared space. This means cars can use them but not park. They have been cobbled and are far more pedestrian friendly. Aucklanders love their coffee and I expect these places to increasingly be more peaceful spaces where people gather, to ponder, read, catch up and have a coffee without breathing in exhaust fumes with their short black or latte.

The day of the car in downtown Auckland isn’t over, but it is clearly not welcome. Our fantastic public bus service is increasingly becoming the transport of choice.

Thousands of visitors are of course currently enjoying the warmth of spring and the people of this city with the Rugby World Cup.

The opening ceremony was something special and a bit of good old Kiwi magic.

Watching this from my hotel in Johannesburg was hard. My heart was thousands of kilometres away in Auckland with my friends and family who were all out in the middle of all the madness.

Up to 100,000 people turned up in downtown Auckland to enjoy the party atmosphere. What impressed me most was the wonderfully choreographed display around the harbour and downtown incorporating the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra based on Queens Wharf and a cast of Pacific Island Drummers, Pipe Bands, Gospel Choir and Maori groups scattered among and on top of Auckland’s skyscrapers culminating in a wonderful song, ‘All Lit Up’ as three and half tonnes of fireworks went up in a profusion of sound and colour.

It was a moment I imagine all New Zealanders will long remember and cherish. For me it wasn’t just the celebration of sharing who we are and where we live it was the technological achievement of bringing it all together in an 11 minute and 22 second feat of planning and execution.

Amazing. And it sums up New Zealanders perfectly. Many cultures and many histories but singing with one voice and having fun. On top of that was a performance that could have gone horribly wrong but which came off with the precision of a Swiss watch.

If you haven’t seen it I expect it will be on You Tube somewhere and it is definitely worth a look.

The big little country that could is all I can think.

Those of you watching the Rugby World Cup will have noticed I hope that the games so far have been played in dry, sunny and warm conditions except perhaps the Boks v Wales but even in Wellington – which the rest of us think is always wet and windy the weather Gods smiled and delivered conditions that would not have been alien to either the Welsh or the South Africans. And to slightly digress what a wonderful game it was, well done South Africa – my dream of an All Black v Springbok semi final at Eden Park remains intact! Just...

Nice to not only bathe in the warmth of the rugby world sharing this great occasion with us in New Zealand but the spring sun.

Roll on summer!

Until next week

Iain MacLeod - Southern Man

Post Script: A clarification if clarification is required. This blog is my take on my world. It is based on my experiences as an Immigration Adviser and New Zealander living in my country and those I regularly visit. The experiences I have in my travels mould my opinions and world view. At times I intentionally set out to provoke but do so in order to promote discussion. My purpose is to pass on to you as one of 30,000 readers an opinion piece. I do not set out to offend or to insult and I do not have a monopoly on insight. If your experiences differ from mine that is cool – if you think that you live in the best country in the world and that country is not New Zealand, I can but wonder why you read this blog. However if you do, you need to understand the readership is those that have chosen to join us in New Zealand, or are seriously considering doing so and not to stay where they are. Therefore their opinions and mine might be quite different to your own.