The once great travel company, Thomas Cook is no longer. It has shut down overnight, stranding hundreds of thousands of travellers, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. Thomas Cook used to be as safe as the Bank of England, its travellers cheques a useful haven for storing funds. What has happened is unbelievable.
What went wrong? Clearly, a lot went wrong and no doubt we'll get to hear about it in time. When management stuff up, they can so spectacularly and I'm pretty sure this is one of those times. Was all this avoidable? Probably, the banks like to make an example of someone at times and this could be a case in point.
Showing posts with label Tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourism. Show all posts
September 23, 2019
March 28, 2019
Air New Zealand Cost Cutting
I was sceptical about the Air New Zealand fare revamp back in February, speculating that bad news would follow. I was right, Air New Zealand are cutting back on buying new planes, read about it here:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/385766/air-new-zealand-to-cut-costs-delay-buying-750m-of-new-aircraft
If Air New Zealand run true to form, they'll soon follow with worker layoffs.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/385766/air-new-zealand-to-cut-costs-delay-buying-750m-of-new-aircraft
If Air New Zealand run true to form, they'll soon follow with worker layoffs.
February 22, 2019
Tourism: New Zealand needs good myths
It was the bridge of lies, err, bridge of sighs in Venice which got me thinking about this: Venice has woven an intricate set of myths around its romance. It's complete bollocks of course, often knowingly so (my wife thinks many locals actually now believe the lies, but I demur).
New Zealand has to get in on the act. Scenery alone doesn't cut it, there are a lot of places in the world that are stunningly beautiful (I'm committing heresy saying it). And when I say get in on the act, I mean relentlessly go on about it, rather like Australia promotes its better climate when in fact it is nothing of the sort, it's either burning, in drought, or a mosquito infested swamp.
The idea of running a 24 hours TV channel in Europe comes to mind. We noticed in Italy that countries in Africa even promote themselves this way in Europe. Nothing about NZ, why not?
New Zealand has to get in on the act. Scenery alone doesn't cut it, there are a lot of places in the world that are stunningly beautiful (I'm committing heresy saying it). And when I say get in on the act, I mean relentlessly go on about it, rather like Australia promotes its better climate when in fact it is nothing of the sort, it's either burning, in drought, or a mosquito infested swamp.
The idea of running a 24 hours TV channel in Europe comes to mind. We noticed in Italy that countries in Africa even promote themselves this way in Europe. Nothing about NZ, why not?
February 01, 2019
More Venice
We walked all over Venice and took one boat ride, a free water taxi trip to Murano to see a free demonstration of glass blowing and maybe buy some glass. Yes, we'd been hustled near the Duomo but it wasn't such a bad thing, I knew that this wouldn't be the last day of the promotion as the salesperson said and this was confirmed when someone offered us the very same deal the very next day.
Anyway, off to Murano we went for the day, here's the boat trip looking back at Venice as it disappears out of sight:
Once we arrived the glass blowing demonstration began. I've worked most of my life in sand so I found this interesting:
And then we did buy some glass, but not a delicate figure. I don't know how they make money with this promotion as the cost of all this was well above the profit on what we bought.
This is what Murano looks like:
We ate at a not too expensive restaurant:
And this is what we consumed, standard fare for the Italians it seems, everywhere we went there weren't that many options, why aren't the Italians obese?
Then we took a crowded ferry back to Venice.
Random pictures of Venice:
Anyway, off to Murano we went for the day, here's the boat trip looking back at Venice as it disappears out of sight:
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| Heading to Murano from Venice by Water Taxi |
 |
| Sorry about the quality of the image but this shows the figure he's creating being stretched out from the molten glass. |
This is what Murano looks like:
And this is what we consumed, standard fare for the Italians it seems, everywhere we went there weren't that many options, why aren't the Italians obese?
Then we took a crowded ferry back to Venice.
Random pictures of Venice:
 |
| The Railway Station |
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| Fish Market |
 |
| Museo Della Musica - free entry and some interesting stuff |
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| Portrait of Maria Callas in the Gran Teatro |
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| Railway Station and Ferry Terminal, there are also porters at the station to carry bags to your hotel if staying in Venice itself. |
January 31, 2019
Venice
In describing our trip to Italy, I'm not making these posts in chronological order. Instead I'm working my way through in order of least through to most favoured. So far I've completely dismissed Pompeii as a tourist trap and Naples as an ongoing crime scene.
Now we find ourselves at Venice, which is kind of okay as far as it goes. It would be a really inconvenient place to live, but I can begin to see the charm of the place. I totally identify with the locals who hate George Clooney for shutting down parts of the city during his nuptials there. We arrived at Venice first, the journey we took was Air New Zealand and then Lufthansa which I've nicknamed Luftbastards. The route was Christchurch - Auckland - Singapore - Frankfurt - Venice. Singapore is a model of efficiency of course, but very humid, I don't know how people live there either. They've got flying insects the size of small birds. Anyhoo, flying Luftbastards was an eye opener, I'd never flown them before and found their in-flight entertainment dire. I imagine it was developed by some techie German working for Luftbastards. He should be sacked as the system barely functions it's that bad. Want to fast forward a movie? When you do that it is just as likely to fast reverse, and that's if the system works at all. Quite often you have to exit, go back to the start and try again. I'm not kidding, this system is the worst I've yet found. On one flight I had to have my seat rebooted twice. It's a joke.
Air New Zealand I try to avoid, but this time I found they've upped their game. Their staff weren't so arrogant and rude, and the meals were acceptable. The in-flight entertainment worked but had a very limited selection. Nothing like United from the USA, I swear they've got the Library of Congress loaded into their system. None of these even come close to the hospitality and efficiency of Thai Airways which remains to date, the best airline I've flown with.
Venice. We arrived via Frankfurt. For some odd reason only obvious to Eurocrats, we needed a stamp in our passports in Frankfurt even though we were only transiting, and then when we moved on to Venice we weren't checked at all upon arrival there. It was like a domestic flight. We didn't fill in an arrivals card anywhere.
At Frankfurt we bought a spot of breakfast after the long flight from Singapore. This is what it looked like, bought from a hotdog stand outside where our flight to Venice was leaving from:
Not so long after eating, we found ourselves on our flight over the Swiss Alps, and arriving in Venice. Once in Venice we found out what Italy's problem was, they've been invaded by Daleks, here they are:
Message to Italy, Daleks will only cause misery, you have to drop this as an option and go back to sensible government.
At our bed and breakfast we found Italians like sweet things, here is what our breakfast looked like on our first morning waking up there:
While this is basic, we found this not too dissimilar to what Italians eat every morning. Too sweet for me (more about this in later posts). But having said that, Italy doesn't appear to have an obesity epidemic. I hardly saw a fat person the whole time.
We were staying in Mestre, and took the bus and train into Venice proper, depending on how we felt that day. The bus has the advantage of going straight from the bus stop to Venice, whereas obviously you need to walk to the station to get there by train. Both methods of transfer are fast and cheap, no worries there.
I prefer the trains, and discovered that Minions are fighting back against the Daleks, here they are lined up for combat at the Venice Train Station:
The Daleks are not taking this lying down and have fifth columnists at work, trying to derail the Minions efforts. They're called Aids trains:
Venice looks like this on a good day in winter:
Like this on an average day:
And on a bad day like this:
The Bridge of Sighs er actually Bridge of Lies
You've got to hand it to the Italians, they're good at spinning a yarn full of romantic claptrap. I managed to get a picture of the Bridge of Sighs, without being jostled by the hundreds of tourists crowding to get a shot of this total lie. Here's the pic:
The bridge was for transferring prisoners from the courts on the left, to the prison on the right. Looking through those windows on the bridge is the last the prisoners will see of Venice. That's the story, and if you and your loved one take a gondola ride at exorbitant cost and kiss under the bridge as the bells of the Duomo strike 5pm (something like that), your love will last forever. Brilliant marketing guys. Actually, those prisoners were all released within a few months as they were almost always petty criminals convicted of minor crimes. The time when the prison held political prisoners being tortured and such was a hundred or more years earlier and long before the bridge was built. But, you know, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
More about Venice tomorrow. But for now I'll leave with a pic of the post boxes we were told never to place a letter in, they'll end up with the Daleks otherwise. Instead we were told to post letters in funny little yellow boxes hiding in souvenir shops. What happened to Italy's postal service?
Now we find ourselves at Venice, which is kind of okay as far as it goes. It would be a really inconvenient place to live, but I can begin to see the charm of the place. I totally identify with the locals who hate George Clooney for shutting down parts of the city during his nuptials there. We arrived at Venice first, the journey we took was Air New Zealand and then Lufthansa which I've nicknamed Luftbastards. The route was Christchurch - Auckland - Singapore - Frankfurt - Venice. Singapore is a model of efficiency of course, but very humid, I don't know how people live there either. They've got flying insects the size of small birds. Anyhoo, flying Luftbastards was an eye opener, I'd never flown them before and found their in-flight entertainment dire. I imagine it was developed by some techie German working for Luftbastards. He should be sacked as the system barely functions it's that bad. Want to fast forward a movie? When you do that it is just as likely to fast reverse, and that's if the system works at all. Quite often you have to exit, go back to the start and try again. I'm not kidding, this system is the worst I've yet found. On one flight I had to have my seat rebooted twice. It's a joke.
Air New Zealand I try to avoid, but this time I found they've upped their game. Their staff weren't so arrogant and rude, and the meals were acceptable. The in-flight entertainment worked but had a very limited selection. Nothing like United from the USA, I swear they've got the Library of Congress loaded into their system. None of these even come close to the hospitality and efficiency of Thai Airways which remains to date, the best airline I've flown with.
Venice. We arrived via Frankfurt. For some odd reason only obvious to Eurocrats, we needed a stamp in our passports in Frankfurt even though we were only transiting, and then when we moved on to Venice we weren't checked at all upon arrival there. It was like a domestic flight. We didn't fill in an arrivals card anywhere.
At Frankfurt we bought a spot of breakfast after the long flight from Singapore. This is what it looked like, bought from a hotdog stand outside where our flight to Venice was leaving from:
Not so long after eating, we found ourselves on our flight over the Swiss Alps, and arriving in Venice. Once in Venice we found out what Italy's problem was, they've been invaded by Daleks, here they are:
Message to Italy, Daleks will only cause misery, you have to drop this as an option and go back to sensible government.
At our bed and breakfast we found Italians like sweet things, here is what our breakfast looked like on our first morning waking up there:
While this is basic, we found this not too dissimilar to what Italians eat every morning. Too sweet for me (more about this in later posts). But having said that, Italy doesn't appear to have an obesity epidemic. I hardly saw a fat person the whole time.
We were staying in Mestre, and took the bus and train into Venice proper, depending on how we felt that day. The bus has the advantage of going straight from the bus stop to Venice, whereas obviously you need to walk to the station to get there by train. Both methods of transfer are fast and cheap, no worries there.
I prefer the trains, and discovered that Minions are fighting back against the Daleks, here they are lined up for combat at the Venice Train Station:
The Daleks are not taking this lying down and have fifth columnists at work, trying to derail the Minions efforts. They're called Aids trains:
Venice looks like this on a good day in winter:
Like this on an average day:
And on a bad day like this:
The Bridge of Sighs er actually Bridge of Lies
You've got to hand it to the Italians, they're good at spinning a yarn full of romantic claptrap. I managed to get a picture of the Bridge of Sighs, without being jostled by the hundreds of tourists crowding to get a shot of this total lie. Here's the pic:
The bridge was for transferring prisoners from the courts on the left, to the prison on the right. Looking through those windows on the bridge is the last the prisoners will see of Venice. That's the story, and if you and your loved one take a gondola ride at exorbitant cost and kiss under the bridge as the bells of the Duomo strike 5pm (something like that), your love will last forever. Brilliant marketing guys. Actually, those prisoners were all released within a few months as they were almost always petty criminals convicted of minor crimes. The time when the prison held political prisoners being tortured and such was a hundred or more years earlier and long before the bridge was built. But, you know, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
More about Venice tomorrow. But for now I'll leave with a pic of the post boxes we were told never to place a letter in, they'll end up with the Daleks otherwise. Instead we were told to post letters in funny little yellow boxes hiding in souvenir shops. What happened to Italy's postal service?
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| Told to never post a letter in one of these. Something tells me this is good advice. |
January 28, 2019
Pompeii
For most of January 2019 I have been in Italy travelling around. Over the next few days and weeks I'll report on my experiences and the impressions I formed of the people and places. Not all of this is going to be positive, be warned.
I was travelling with my wife and youngest daughter. This was going to be a rail trip, travelling between cities on the Italian rail system which I must say functions quite adequately as a fairly fast system, but nothing like that of Japan. Few can match the speed and efficiency of Japan.
For me, the ruins at Pompeii were near the top of my list of places to visit. I ended up disappointed and I can safely say this is a place to avoid unless you are absolutely obsessed with everything Roman and just have to go there.
We stayed in Naples, which is another city worth avoiding, but more about that place later. Getting to Pompeii turned out to be a mission. We wanted to get to Pompeii by rail and set out in the morning, we found out the hard way how to do this: go to Napoli Garribaldi station which is on a lower level of the central railway station, and take the heavily tagged, ugly and uncomfortable trains called the Circumvesuviana Napoli to Sorrento line. Make sure to get on the train indicated on the electronic signboard - (Pompei Scavi), in parentheses after the displayed final destination. This train will take you to the excavations themselves, and right at the entrance gate to the site, and not to Pompei city which is farther away. You can see the city from the hill Pompeii sits on, so it's not that far away but make every effort to be on the right train. Here's what that view looks like:
Our story about this is somewhat convoluted. Leaving our hotel thinking it would be easy to just walk to the train station (okay, it was me who thought this, I'll never live it down), I got us badly lost. Unbeknownst to us at the time we ended up at a station on the correct line, one stop closer to Pompeii (the station was called via Gianturco), but not knowing this we headed on a train back to Napoli Garribaldi. Note, at this stage we hadn't bought a ticket as this via Gianturco place had no ticketing at all. Strange indeed. We were soon joined on the platform by a group of young Spanish people, apparently they'd got off the train they were on as they'd found it wasn't going to Pompeii, so now they were on our platform looking to head back to Naples in order to start their journey again. You'd be right in thinking that a lot of people get lost on their way to Pompeii (as an aside, maybe it's best to stay at modern Pompei city or its surrounds, don't try to stay in Naples and make the day trip to Pompeii Scavi, just saying).
At Naples we approached an attendant and were promptly given some kind of fine for not having a ticket but being within the system. After much gesticulation he found out we were trying to get to Pompeii, and weren't coming from Pompeii. He refunded our money and waved us away. After some wandering around we found ourselves on the platform for Pompeii Scavi.
This didn't go as planned as an Englishman who thought he knew everything informed us the very next train was going to Pompeii Scavi. It turned out he only had half the information he needed, at best. We got on this train, and just past via Gianturco (that one again, we'd just come from there with the young Spanish speakers) a very nice Italian gentleman started telling us where we needed to be. We didn't understand a word of what he said but someone else on the train knew English and interpreted, telling us we needed to get off at the next station and take the train coming after this one, that would get us to Pompeii Scavi. On our travels we found Italians to be very helpful like this.
So we got off the train at the next station to see the Englishman there too, I avoided talking to him as I didn't want a Commonwealth incident in Italy, we were meant to be Allies after all.
So at last we were on the train to Pompeii. Yay. Then some hustlers boarded the train and began playing loud music, beating drums and shaking tambourines. I guessed they wanted us to pay to make them go away, but at the next station they were thrown off. Given the patience the locals had toward this din, my guess is they're used to it. The locals seemed amused at my appalled reaction. Do not pay these so-called entertainers anything (the noise-making hustlers that is).
Arriving at the site, there was no ticket check at the station exit and so we had just managed to travel to Pompei Scavi for free (going home at the end of the day we bought tickets at the ticket window and paid about 50% more for the privilege, the price displayed on the actual ticket showed less than we'd just paid). We were then constantly berated by more hustlers and swindlers just outside the main gates. Very low class and not a good first impression.
The cost to get in to Pompeii? 30 Euro, my wife and I had to pay, the child was free. Was this a good deal? No it wasn't, that was way too expensive. We collected our free map, which turned out to be useless as it contained such little information and virtually no English. Once on site, there is very little English and next to no information about what is what. So we wandered around all day, me being guide as it turns out I actually know what I'm talking about.
Were there highlights of this day exploring Pompeii? Yes, I enjoyed the Villa dei Misteri. I've looked around for a good map of the site to indicate where this house sits and found this link:
http://www.tourpompei.com/alex/sites/default/files/Itinerary_3_forkids_0.jpg
The Villa is illustrated at the top left of the above map, outside the city walls. What is good about this place is it is intact and you can see the art still on the inside walls of the house. No-one knew about this place until the twentieth century, so it hasn't been looted.
My suggestion; do not leave it too late to visit the Villa dei Misteri. It's a walk away from the main site, and knowing this I had it first on my list. When approaching the house which is a walk up and then down a small hill adjacent to Pompeii, a nice man called out from the house, were we English? No, I replied, New Zealand. He knew where this was; we found Italians generally knew where New Zealand was and they also knew Italy always lost to the All Blacks. They tell us that, we would never mention it of course.
Here are some pics from inside the Villa:
It turned out this nice gentleman was touting for his neighbouring family restaurant run by his mother. He proudly informed us that Morgan Freeman had eaten there. The place is called Bacco e Arianna. Yes, another hustle, but a good one as he sold us custom made takeaway sandwiches that were too big for us to finish, half the price of sandwiches selling on site that are a third the size.
A couple of photo's, what the restaurant looks inside the courtyard, and what those sandwiches looked like:
(This is the street view of the establishment:
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@40.7531859,14.4773121,3a,60y,13.6h,86.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sL_Ai38goZ0ytz31kVWqBZg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 )
See the white hut at the end there? That's some kind of backdoor entry to Pompeii, and the turnstile was always open. The two guards just waved us through, one saying he'd remember us when coming back from the restaurant, but they didn't notice or check when we returned. Very Italian all this, as was the Mum making those sandwiches. Like some kind of scene from a movie. I must say they had a brilliant crop of Mandarins coming on there, diners can sit outdoors underneath the trees while they eat.
You may have picked up on my thinking here. If you're clever and scout around, you could easily get into Pompeii for free. They deserve to have this happen as the site is so badly managed. One of the major secrets is the museum up the back and next door to the amphitheatre, it appears devoted to Etruscan and Samnite stuff. There was nothing promoting this museum earlier, and by the time we found it we were running out of time. The amphitheatre was a waste of time and polluted with Pink Floyd blaring from below. As the young one pointed out, those vibrations are probably breaking down the structure. Message: leave Pink Floyd out, I don't care if they played there, they're irrelevant, pretentious twits.
While the Villa dei Misteri is very impressive, it's not where I could picture myself living. No, my favourite house was the sunken garden place, which funnily enough is toward the Villa in terms of direction (to the left of the Forum as you look at it upon entering from the main gate). This is the sunken garden house:
Walking back to the main gate my daughter asked if the pavement we were walking on was 2,000 years old. No, I could safely say, it was probably laid last week. A lot of the site was like that, new plaster, recent pavement, new roofs. Give the place to Disney to manage, they'd do the job properly.
Oh and one last thing; the Romans weren't stupid. Stupid people would have rutted roads impossible to use. Those stones in the surface of the city streets, those cracks would have been filled with sand. How do I know this? Very few of the stones were broken at the edges. Wagon wheels get stuck in cracks and break, or they break off the edges of the paver. But more prevalent were wheel ruts in the stone itself., meaning the wheels were running over an even surface.
Fill those cracks with sand and make the site easy to walk around, like it would've been back in the day. The other benefit (which the Romans knew about) is the sand locks up the paving stones, and they're less likely to move around plus the sand soaks up animal waste and also glues everything together. The site management have gone out of their way to make the site difficult to navigate, the streets could put your back out they're that bad.
Here's what I'm talking about:
Look at the road itself, nicely worn stones, those cracks would have been filled with sand to make the road surface flush. If they didn't do this all those stones would be broken away at the edges, and back in the day wagons would be breaking axles and wheels, and they'd possibly hit stepping stones used for crossing the street by failing to make clearance.
This looks better, more like this:
I was travelling with my wife and youngest daughter. This was going to be a rail trip, travelling between cities on the Italian rail system which I must say functions quite adequately as a fairly fast system, but nothing like that of Japan. Few can match the speed and efficiency of Japan.
For me, the ruins at Pompeii were near the top of my list of places to visit. I ended up disappointed and I can safely say this is a place to avoid unless you are absolutely obsessed with everything Roman and just have to go there.
We stayed in Naples, which is another city worth avoiding, but more about that place later. Getting to Pompeii turned out to be a mission. We wanted to get to Pompeii by rail and set out in the morning, we found out the hard way how to do this: go to Napoli Garribaldi station which is on a lower level of the central railway station, and take the heavily tagged, ugly and uncomfortable trains called the Circumvesuviana Napoli to Sorrento line. Make sure to get on the train indicated on the electronic signboard - (Pompei Scavi), in parentheses after the displayed final destination. This train will take you to the excavations themselves, and right at the entrance gate to the site, and not to Pompei city which is farther away. You can see the city from the hill Pompeii sits on, so it's not that far away but make every effort to be on the right train. Here's what that view looks like:
Our story about this is somewhat convoluted. Leaving our hotel thinking it would be easy to just walk to the train station (okay, it was me who thought this, I'll never live it down), I got us badly lost. Unbeknownst to us at the time we ended up at a station on the correct line, one stop closer to Pompeii (the station was called via Gianturco), but not knowing this we headed on a train back to Napoli Garribaldi. Note, at this stage we hadn't bought a ticket as this via Gianturco place had no ticketing at all. Strange indeed. We were soon joined on the platform by a group of young Spanish people, apparently they'd got off the train they were on as they'd found it wasn't going to Pompeii, so now they were on our platform looking to head back to Naples in order to start their journey again. You'd be right in thinking that a lot of people get lost on their way to Pompeii (as an aside, maybe it's best to stay at modern Pompei city or its surrounds, don't try to stay in Naples and make the day trip to Pompeii Scavi, just saying).
At Naples we approached an attendant and were promptly given some kind of fine for not having a ticket but being within the system. After much gesticulation he found out we were trying to get to Pompeii, and weren't coming from Pompeii. He refunded our money and waved us away. After some wandering around we found ourselves on the platform for Pompeii Scavi.
This didn't go as planned as an Englishman who thought he knew everything informed us the very next train was going to Pompeii Scavi. It turned out he only had half the information he needed, at best. We got on this train, and just past via Gianturco (that one again, we'd just come from there with the young Spanish speakers) a very nice Italian gentleman started telling us where we needed to be. We didn't understand a word of what he said but someone else on the train knew English and interpreted, telling us we needed to get off at the next station and take the train coming after this one, that would get us to Pompeii Scavi. On our travels we found Italians to be very helpful like this.
So we got off the train at the next station to see the Englishman there too, I avoided talking to him as I didn't want a Commonwealth incident in Italy, we were meant to be Allies after all.
So at last we were on the train to Pompeii. Yay. Then some hustlers boarded the train and began playing loud music, beating drums and shaking tambourines. I guessed they wanted us to pay to make them go away, but at the next station they were thrown off. Given the patience the locals had toward this din, my guess is they're used to it. The locals seemed amused at my appalled reaction. Do not pay these so-called entertainers anything (the noise-making hustlers that is).
Arriving at the site, there was no ticket check at the station exit and so we had just managed to travel to Pompei Scavi for free (going home at the end of the day we bought tickets at the ticket window and paid about 50% more for the privilege, the price displayed on the actual ticket showed less than we'd just paid). We were then constantly berated by more hustlers and swindlers just outside the main gates. Very low class and not a good first impression.
The cost to get in to Pompeii? 30 Euro, my wife and I had to pay, the child was free. Was this a good deal? No it wasn't, that was way too expensive. We collected our free map, which turned out to be useless as it contained such little information and virtually no English. Once on site, there is very little English and next to no information about what is what. So we wandered around all day, me being guide as it turns out I actually know what I'm talking about.
Were there highlights of this day exploring Pompeii? Yes, I enjoyed the Villa dei Misteri. I've looked around for a good map of the site to indicate where this house sits and found this link:
http://www.tourpompei.com/alex/sites/default/files/Itinerary_3_forkids_0.jpg
The Villa is illustrated at the top left of the above map, outside the city walls. What is good about this place is it is intact and you can see the art still on the inside walls of the house. No-one knew about this place until the twentieth century, so it hasn't been looted.
My suggestion; do not leave it too late to visit the Villa dei Misteri. It's a walk away from the main site, and knowing this I had it first on my list. When approaching the house which is a walk up and then down a small hill adjacent to Pompeii, a nice man called out from the house, were we English? No, I replied, New Zealand. He knew where this was; we found Italians generally knew where New Zealand was and they also knew Italy always lost to the All Blacks. They tell us that, we would never mention it of course.
Here are some pics from inside the Villa:
It turned out this nice gentleman was touting for his neighbouring family restaurant run by his mother. He proudly informed us that Morgan Freeman had eaten there. The place is called Bacco e Arianna. Yes, another hustle, but a good one as he sold us custom made takeaway sandwiches that were too big for us to finish, half the price of sandwiches selling on site that are a third the size.
A couple of photo's, what the restaurant looks inside the courtyard, and what those sandwiches looked like:
(This is the street view of the establishment:
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@40.7531859,14.4773121,3a,60y,13.6h,86.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sL_Ai38goZ0ytz31kVWqBZg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 )
See the white hut at the end there? That's some kind of backdoor entry to Pompeii, and the turnstile was always open. The two guards just waved us through, one saying he'd remember us when coming back from the restaurant, but they didn't notice or check when we returned. Very Italian all this, as was the Mum making those sandwiches. Like some kind of scene from a movie. I must say they had a brilliant crop of Mandarins coming on there, diners can sit outdoors underneath the trees while they eat.
You may have picked up on my thinking here. If you're clever and scout around, you could easily get into Pompeii for free. They deserve to have this happen as the site is so badly managed. One of the major secrets is the museum up the back and next door to the amphitheatre, it appears devoted to Etruscan and Samnite stuff. There was nothing promoting this museum earlier, and by the time we found it we were running out of time. The amphitheatre was a waste of time and polluted with Pink Floyd blaring from below. As the young one pointed out, those vibrations are probably breaking down the structure. Message: leave Pink Floyd out, I don't care if they played there, they're irrelevant, pretentious twits.
While the Villa dei Misteri is very impressive, it's not where I could picture myself living. No, my favourite house was the sunken garden place, which funnily enough is toward the Villa in terms of direction (to the left of the Forum as you look at it upon entering from the main gate). This is the sunken garden house:
Walking back to the main gate my daughter asked if the pavement we were walking on was 2,000 years old. No, I could safely say, it was probably laid last week. A lot of the site was like that, new plaster, recent pavement, new roofs. Give the place to Disney to manage, they'd do the job properly.
Oh and one last thing; the Romans weren't stupid. Stupid people would have rutted roads impossible to use. Those stones in the surface of the city streets, those cracks would have been filled with sand. How do I know this? Very few of the stones were broken at the edges. Wagon wheels get stuck in cracks and break, or they break off the edges of the paver. But more prevalent were wheel ruts in the stone itself., meaning the wheels were running over an even surface.
Fill those cracks with sand and make the site easy to walk around, like it would've been back in the day. The other benefit (which the Romans knew about) is the sand locks up the paving stones, and they're less likely to move around plus the sand soaks up animal waste and also glues everything together. The site management have gone out of their way to make the site difficult to navigate, the streets could put your back out they're that bad.
Here's what I'm talking about:
Look at the road itself, nicely worn stones, those cracks would have been filled with sand to make the road surface flush. If they didn't do this all those stones would be broken away at the edges, and back in the day wagons would be breaking axles and wheels, and they'd possibly hit stepping stones used for crossing the street by failing to make clearance.
This looks better, more like this:
October 28, 2018
Snob's Guide to New Zealand - Selling in France
A nice surprise has been the sales of my new book in France. I have mentioned France and Frenchmen a few times in the book and this may have resulted in favourable search results within the Amazon platform. Over the weekend Snob's Guide to New Zealand was higher than Bill Bryson's Downunder, and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (the English translation).
The Kindle version can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J9XRCWK
Paperback: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1727804147
The Kindle version can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J9XRCWK
Paperback: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1727804147
November 24, 2016
The Snob's Guide: Moving to New Zealand
Snob's Guide to New Zealand is now a book, available from Amazon in paperback or kindle
Paperback: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1727804147
Kindle: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J9XRCWK
It has been reported that many Americans are considering moving to New Zealand now that Donald Trump has been elected President. New Zealand websites like realestate.co.nz and the NZ government immigration website have reported massive increases in traffic from the US.
This is welcome news to Kiwis (the nickname for a New Zealand national is Kiwi). Kiwis like Americans, even if they find them somewhat loud at times, with peculiar habits. They particularly like Americans liking guns as Kiwis love guns too, and sport, which Americans seem keen on, even if their Superbowl seems strange, why do the players not actually play?
But hang on a minute there mate. It's not all beer and skittles in the shaky isles. As a result I've compiled this list as a guide to where to live if you want people to take you seriously, and see you as not being just a typical immigrant. The list is in order of importance, first being most desirable and of higher worth socially - from a snob's point of view of course:-
1. Wellington
The capital city of New Zealand and the cultural heart of the nation. Even educated people overseas often get this wrong. I once read a list of capitals in a book on the Second World War by Max Hastings: he wrote London, Washington, Canberra and Auckland. What? That last one is NZ's largest population centre, NOT the capital.
The original reason Wellington was made the capital is it sits in the middle of the country. It's also very windy, which is a good thing, the winds come in the afternoon and nights, making the mornings beautifully clear. Within Wellington my suburb picks are Mt Victoria, Mt Cook, Berhampore, Newtown and Island Bay.
If staying in the region but not the city itself, then the Kapiti Coast is favoured. Bear in mind there are only two ways into the city, and the commute can be long. This is not a problem if you're going in the opposite direction to the traffic, which some manage to organise.
Wellington is vulnerable to earthquakes, there is no getting around this if you live in New Zealand.
2. Nelson
A town at the top of the South Island, located on Tasman Bay. This is where the hippies congregated in the 60's. Courtney Love's mother brought her daughter among them, and the young girl attended Nelson College for Girls before being asked to leave.
Italians settled in the city after the war, and earlier the region was settled by the English, with Germans also settling in the Moutere district, between Richmond and Motueka. Therefore it is somewhat artistic and possibly intellectual.
New Zealand is a rugby mad country (both rugby union and rugby league ) but Nelson is the one area in New Zealand where this is not the case. Nelson is the only region in New Zealand where basketball is the top sport, followed closely by volleyball. An American living in Nelson who likes either basketball or volleyball, or both, will get along famously.
There is no American football in NZ. Some may claim there is, but they're just yanking your chain. If you're not prepared to let that go, do not come to New Zealand as Kiwis think anyone who plays Gridiron is a pansy.
3. Christchurch
The largest city in the South Island. Large earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 badly damaged the city. There is a lot of rebuild work but the city is hard to live in. Not for the faint hearted this one, but it's a nice place nonetheless.
Christchurch is rugby heartland (even though the first game of rugby was actually played in Nelson - go figure, and it was actually Aussie Rules by mistake but everyone forgets that...pfft). It's more narrow-minded and insular than the above cities, hence it gets a lower place.
4. New Plymouth
The North Island's top regional town. Known for oil and milk cows. Easy drive anywhere and no earthquakes.
5. Gisborne
Poverty Bay in the North Island. Much cheaper houses and no-one will laugh if you live there. They will laugh if you live in Hamilton, Napier/Hastings, Palmerston North and Wanganui. The latter two are not that bad really, John Cleese hates Palmerston North, which is a good reason to like it.
6. Dunedin
Used to be the largest city in NZ back in the day, deep south, COLD. Even more insular than Christchurch.
7. Westport
My pick of the South Island west coast, nice town, nice people, coal and gold. Their girls basketball team won the nationals for small schools not so long ago, this town has energy despite Holcim closing the very pretty cement works. With Westport you've got National Parks at your doorstep, my favourite being the Nelson Lakes, but Abel Tasman and Kahurangi are in the area as well (for Abel Tasman you'd better live in Nelson, see above).
8. Whangarei
The warm heart of the North. The region is known for farming and they have an oil refinery and cement works too. Anywhere in Northland is good but the schools are dodgy. The local Maori are politically active, which is a good thing, if you want to learn to speak Maori then this is where to live.
9. Islands
New Zealand has hundreds of Islands, many of them habitable; Waiheke, Great Barrier (both Auckland), D'Urville is the largest in the Marlborough Sounds but many others also. There are too many to list, but remember, this is a remote country with 4.5 million people, you have to look after yourself, if a tsunami cuts off your access, you may be jiggered.
10. Remote locations
Sewart Island, Chatham and Pitt Islands. These are for the adventurous only and to survive you need an economic reason to live there; tourism, farming and fishing being the main ones.
Other remote locations include eastern Southland, south Westland, East Cape and the central North Island. If you like living off the grid then these locations may be for you.
Not for Snobs:
Auckland - déclassé, people who live in Auckland think New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills just south of the city. They are referred to as Dorklanders, or Jafa's (Just Another Fucking Aucklander). Living in Auckland, while easy enough and enjoying higher incomes, earns no points at all on the snob index.
Invercargill - derided by the Rolling Stones, it was once vibrant but is now falling in population and struggles to find a reason to exist. They do things like offering qualifications from their Polytech for no fees just to attract people (see my snob's guide to education in NZ, this option is a no-go). [Update: Invercargill has changed over the years and it is now much improved, those zero fees courses they offer have attracted diversity and people with energy]
Queenstown - a tourist trap, beautiful scenery and one dimensional. Then when you want to go somewhere, you're miles away from anywhere. Forget this place, vacation in Queenstown, that's all.
Blenheim - a poor man's Nelson
Living in New Zealand poses challenges. You need to be independent in finances and nature. If you like being surrounded by people and not being alone, then New Zealand may not be for you. On the other hand, if you think for yourself and are a bit of a loner, then Kiwis will love you, it's a country of 4.5 million individualists (that's why it has no great army or multinational company, it's a bit like a lunatic asylum where everyone is off doing their own thing, usually breaking in land, but they could be surfing, writing, arguing the fall of the Roman empire, or whatever - the latter discussion more likely to be heard in Wellington jsyk).
Maori culture:
Maori language and culture is undergoing a renaissance of late. This means it is not hard to get involved or to learn the native language. Maori and sign language are the two official languages of NZ, English isn't official but like the US, it's pre-eminent. Maori television is often better than the rest, Maori politicians are often highly principled. The emerging Maori middle class appear to place sport at the top of their tree, particularly team sports, like rugby (both kinds), Netball for girls (it's like the original basketball, which was exported to England and they never updated the rules, played across the British Commonwealth) and others such as basketball.
Traditionally, Maori lived in the countryside on Maori land (some Maori land exists in cities like Nelson, it was a planned settlement) while Pakeha (white New Zealanders ) lived in the cities. Okay so I'm grossly simplifying but I need to keep this brief. This arrangement stemmed from the end of the New Zealand Wars. In short, the British flagged beating Maori up and the settlers wanted the wars to stop so they could start making money.
Then in the 1950's NZ started to industrialise, spurred on by their WWII experience. The USA built an interstate highway system, while NZ decided to make steel and stuff. Firstly, Maori were recruited to work in these factories, then when that source of labour was exhausted, they brought Pacific Islanders in, places like Samoa (actually originally German but NZ effectively owned it since WWI when the Kiwis invaded, providing the Allies their second victory, after Togoland fell - no I'm not making this up, look it up).
Gangs:
The result of these changes was dislocation from tribal roots. Thus in the cities gangs took hold. There are lots of these gangs, Maori, Pacific Island and mixtures of both. The largest of these are the rival Mongrel Mob and Black Power. Yes, New Zealand has biker gangs (called bikies in NZ and Australia) which are largely Pakeha, and Hells Angels has a chapter in NZ (the oldest outside of North America).
Just so you know - all these groups are criminals; they choose to be criminals and they are not good people. The prison population is growing and only the US can rival Kiwiland in that regard.
The reach of these gangs should not be underestimated. Many have a family member that belong to one. This can go right to the top in NZ society.
What to do?
I suggest you come to New Zealand and look around first. Assuming you can immigrate, think like a snob first, it does matter, then consider practicalities such as income, airports, roads, services, banks, etc.
Paperback: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1727804147
Kindle: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J9XRCWK
It has been reported that many Americans are considering moving to New Zealand now that Donald Trump has been elected President. New Zealand websites like realestate.co.nz and the NZ government immigration website have reported massive increases in traffic from the US.
This is welcome news to Kiwis (the nickname for a New Zealand national is Kiwi). Kiwis like Americans, even if they find them somewhat loud at times, with peculiar habits. They particularly like Americans liking guns as Kiwis love guns too, and sport, which Americans seem keen on, even if their Superbowl seems strange, why do the players not actually play?
But hang on a minute there mate. It's not all beer and skittles in the shaky isles. As a result I've compiled this list as a guide to where to live if you want people to take you seriously, and see you as not being just a typical immigrant. The list is in order of importance, first being most desirable and of higher worth socially - from a snob's point of view of course:-
1. Wellington
The capital city of New Zealand and the cultural heart of the nation. Even educated people overseas often get this wrong. I once read a list of capitals in a book on the Second World War by Max Hastings: he wrote London, Washington, Canberra and Auckland. What? That last one is NZ's largest population centre, NOT the capital.
The original reason Wellington was made the capital is it sits in the middle of the country. It's also very windy, which is a good thing, the winds come in the afternoon and nights, making the mornings beautifully clear. Within Wellington my suburb picks are Mt Victoria, Mt Cook, Berhampore, Newtown and Island Bay.
If staying in the region but not the city itself, then the Kapiti Coast is favoured. Bear in mind there are only two ways into the city, and the commute can be long. This is not a problem if you're going in the opposite direction to the traffic, which some manage to organise.
Wellington is vulnerable to earthquakes, there is no getting around this if you live in New Zealand.
2. Nelson
A town at the top of the South Island, located on Tasman Bay. This is where the hippies congregated in the 60's. Courtney Love's mother brought her daughter among them, and the young girl attended Nelson College for Girls before being asked to leave.
Italians settled in the city after the war, and earlier the region was settled by the English, with Germans also settling in the Moutere district, between Richmond and Motueka. Therefore it is somewhat artistic and possibly intellectual.
New Zealand is a rugby mad country (both rugby union and rugby league ) but Nelson is the one area in New Zealand where this is not the case. Nelson is the only region in New Zealand where basketball is the top sport, followed closely by volleyball. An American living in Nelson who likes either basketball or volleyball, or both, will get along famously.
There is no American football in NZ. Some may claim there is, but they're just yanking your chain. If you're not prepared to let that go, do not come to New Zealand as Kiwis think anyone who plays Gridiron is a pansy.
3. Christchurch
The largest city in the South Island. Large earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 badly damaged the city. There is a lot of rebuild work but the city is hard to live in. Not for the faint hearted this one, but it's a nice place nonetheless.
Christchurch is rugby heartland (even though the first game of rugby was actually played in Nelson - go figure, and it was actually Aussie Rules by mistake but everyone forgets that...pfft). It's more narrow-minded and insular than the above cities, hence it gets a lower place.
4. New Plymouth
The North Island's top regional town. Known for oil and milk cows. Easy drive anywhere and no earthquakes.
5. Gisborne
Poverty Bay in the North Island. Much cheaper houses and no-one will laugh if you live there. They will laugh if you live in Hamilton, Napier/Hastings, Palmerston North and Wanganui. The latter two are not that bad really, John Cleese hates Palmerston North, which is a good reason to like it.
6. Dunedin
Used to be the largest city in NZ back in the day, deep south, COLD. Even more insular than Christchurch.
7. Westport
My pick of the South Island west coast, nice town, nice people, coal and gold. Their girls basketball team won the nationals for small schools not so long ago, this town has energy despite Holcim closing the very pretty cement works. With Westport you've got National Parks at your doorstep, my favourite being the Nelson Lakes, but Abel Tasman and Kahurangi are in the area as well (for Abel Tasman you'd better live in Nelson, see above).
8. Whangarei
The warm heart of the North. The region is known for farming and they have an oil refinery and cement works too. Anywhere in Northland is good but the schools are dodgy. The local Maori are politically active, which is a good thing, if you want to learn to speak Maori then this is where to live.
9. Islands
New Zealand has hundreds of Islands, many of them habitable; Waiheke, Great Barrier (both Auckland), D'Urville is the largest in the Marlborough Sounds but many others also. There are too many to list, but remember, this is a remote country with 4.5 million people, you have to look after yourself, if a tsunami cuts off your access, you may be jiggered.
10. Remote locations
Sewart Island, Chatham and Pitt Islands. These are for the adventurous only and to survive you need an economic reason to live there; tourism, farming and fishing being the main ones.
Other remote locations include eastern Southland, south Westland, East Cape and the central North Island. If you like living off the grid then these locations may be for you.
Not for Snobs:
Auckland - déclassé, people who live in Auckland think New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills just south of the city. They are referred to as Dorklanders, or Jafa's (Just Another Fucking Aucklander). Living in Auckland, while easy enough and enjoying higher incomes, earns no points at all on the snob index.
Invercargill - derided by the Rolling Stones, it was once vibrant but is now falling in population and struggles to find a reason to exist. They do things like offering qualifications from their Polytech for no fees just to attract people (see my snob's guide to education in NZ, this option is a no-go). [Update: Invercargill has changed over the years and it is now much improved, those zero fees courses they offer have attracted diversity and people with energy]
Queenstown - a tourist trap, beautiful scenery and one dimensional. Then when you want to go somewhere, you're miles away from anywhere. Forget this place, vacation in Queenstown, that's all.
Blenheim - a poor man's Nelson
Living in New Zealand poses challenges. You need to be independent in finances and nature. If you like being surrounded by people and not being alone, then New Zealand may not be for you. On the other hand, if you think for yourself and are a bit of a loner, then Kiwis will love you, it's a country of 4.5 million individualists (that's why it has no great army or multinational company, it's a bit like a lunatic asylum where everyone is off doing their own thing, usually breaking in land, but they could be surfing, writing, arguing the fall of the Roman empire, or whatever - the latter discussion more likely to be heard in Wellington jsyk).
Maori culture:
Maori language and culture is undergoing a renaissance of late. This means it is not hard to get involved or to learn the native language. Maori and sign language are the two official languages of NZ, English isn't official but like the US, it's pre-eminent. Maori television is often better than the rest, Maori politicians are often highly principled. The emerging Maori middle class appear to place sport at the top of their tree, particularly team sports, like rugby (both kinds), Netball for girls (it's like the original basketball, which was exported to England and they never updated the rules, played across the British Commonwealth) and others such as basketball.
Traditionally, Maori lived in the countryside on Maori land (some Maori land exists in cities like Nelson, it was a planned settlement) while Pakeha (white New Zealanders ) lived in the cities. Okay so I'm grossly simplifying but I need to keep this brief. This arrangement stemmed from the end of the New Zealand Wars. In short, the British flagged beating Maori up and the settlers wanted the wars to stop so they could start making money.
Then in the 1950's NZ started to industrialise, spurred on by their WWII experience. The USA built an interstate highway system, while NZ decided to make steel and stuff. Firstly, Maori were recruited to work in these factories, then when that source of labour was exhausted, they brought Pacific Islanders in, places like Samoa (actually originally German but NZ effectively owned it since WWI when the Kiwis invaded, providing the Allies their second victory, after Togoland fell - no I'm not making this up, look it up).
Gangs:
The result of these changes was dislocation from tribal roots. Thus in the cities gangs took hold. There are lots of these gangs, Maori, Pacific Island and mixtures of both. The largest of these are the rival Mongrel Mob and Black Power. Yes, New Zealand has biker gangs (called bikies in NZ and Australia) which are largely Pakeha, and Hells Angels has a chapter in NZ (the oldest outside of North America).
Just so you know - all these groups are criminals; they choose to be criminals and they are not good people. The prison population is growing and only the US can rival Kiwiland in that regard.
The reach of these gangs should not be underestimated. Many have a family member that belong to one. This can go right to the top in NZ society.
What to do?
I suggest you come to New Zealand and look around first. Assuming you can immigrate, think like a snob first, it does matter, then consider practicalities such as income, airports, roads, services, banks, etc.