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I have decided to kick start this travel blog again. It’s been over three months since I returned home after two months travelling and I’m going to write briefly on some big themes in my life and thinking, and hopefully in yours too. I hope you’ll tune in.
This one’s about a political perspective I have not seen covered in the media that I read and hear. I believe NZ has just made a seismic change in it’s social landscape and there’s no turning back. It’s happened suddenly but it’s been brewing for years. It’s a change that many are only starting to recognise as a phenomena. I think it is, and I think historians will make much of it in time. It’s not based on any empirical evidence or even research – it’s just my gut feeling.
I have the good fortune of being in a profession that allows me to meet dozens of new people every month, I listen to daytime Radio NZ, read the Herald, and of course I scan social media. This is partly about the result of the recent election and that clever, so very clever, articulate and impressive young women, Jacinda Adern. It’s about the Labour, Green, First alliance –and it’s about a solid wave of progressive policy being heralded in as I write. And it all makes sense to me, at last, some intelligent action on poverty, housing, water, transport, education, climate change – it’s going to be all change.
Most of the people I meet are quietly breathing a sigh of relief. A hopeless, nasty, irresponsible, gutless, do-nothing government has gone – but it’s not just gone, it’s completely dead in the water, it’s agenda is now irrelevant, completely tired and out-of-date. Even the previous Clark Labour government followed a neo-liberal agenda. I think that approach has lost it’s momentum after 20 years.  It has proven to be so wrong – and we want nothing more to do with it. National survived on a web of PR spin and alliances with the media for years – but they have been rumbled as they say, they’ve been found out. The change that will now occur in this country is the subject of this blog.

To bravely generalise, I suggest there has there has been four social groups in New Zealand history – in very broad terms: Maori, The Landowners, The Workers and The Poor: the criminals, drunks, disabled, and the wretched.
I believe New Zealand has finally broken that mould. From the time of the first mass European migration in the mid 1800s we have built an economy that maintained and consolidated those four groups. I would like to expand on this, but to summarise my main point: those four social divisions that supported the ruling families are now redundant. They held the country back and caused so much unfairness, misery and wasted energy, and it consolidated wealth in the hands of a few. With Maori,  landowners,  workers and the poor  – this is what happened.

1. Maori are increasingly empowered and progressive Pakeha have finally managed to build a consensus and momentum that has allowed the  adoption of Maori culture as a part of mainstream thinking.

2. The Landowners were always the ruling elite. They were the politicians, the councillors, the farmers and the employers. Soon they will be paying more in wages and taxes because the wealth of the nation is going to be increasingly shared. Social democracy is now firmly on the agenda and the old ruling elite are having their assumed privilege challenged.

3.  The workers: the farm labourers, servants and dock-workers have stopped tugging on their cloth caps and many have moved into the middle class. They no longer want to be subserviant; they’re tradies with new utes, they’re merchants and entrepreneurs. It’s been slow and many have been left behind like care workers, cleaners and rural workers, but minimum wages have been increased and the Unions have been emboldened – and there’s even talk of a universal wage. In short, there’s a consensus now that everyone can and should live a good life, be educated, get free health care, and have a voice.

4. The poor, we’ve always had them and even accepted  it as the price you pay for progress. A 5% unemployed threshold was once considered a part of good government.  John Key once said, ‘People need to take responsibility for their choices in life.’ Meaning, if you’re poor, it’s your own fault. But now the miserable fringe of society have a big spot light on them and something is going to be done.  Jacinda talks repeatedly about a nation that is kind and compassionate. The poor are not to be left on the margins, despised, feared and neglected and told to simply ‘go to WINZ’.

5. And lastly there’s a new category that barely existed 200 years ago: the other immigrants: Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, Indians, East Europeans and Mid Europeans. If they’re not educated and motivated, they’re enterprising and motivated. We are no longer a bi-cultural country, we are multi-cultural.

That’s it, my thought for today, I could expand on it, but that’s my gut feeling, the old New Zealand with its ruling elite and grateful workers has gone – we have made a big new step, a Michael Savage and a Norman Kirk step towards a country that is smarter, cleaner and fairer. I believe the rest of the world may be inspired by our example, if we follow through. But there’s work to be done because the decaying ideas of the wealthy and privileged, and the wanna-be’s to those ideas, are lurking, always lurking and grumbling in the wings – but I hope they’ll behave themselves for a while. Because now  is a good time to be a New Zealander.
  

I fly back to Auckland tomorrow after two months of travelling on a round-the-world ticket and I thought it was a good time to tally up while it’s still fresh in my mind.
I visited 7 different countries (not counting airport stop-overs in other countries), I took 12 flights, 6 rail journeys and 5 ferry trips, figured out 5 underground transport systems, and I slept in 20 different beds. I managed to play music in 7 different venues.
It was a challenge to play live, write a blog, attend a swim event, visit relatives, and to do it as a budget traveller. I wanted to keep organised and stay motivated and have some fun. I wanted to be part of some different cultures and really get to know them, not just pass though, but to really get a feel for them and the people who lived there.
I hired bikes in many places and just cycled for hours down streets, alleyways and through parks. And I have never done so much walking in my whole life.
I possibly gave myself too much to do and in hindsight would have done some things differently. I kept fairly much to my original schedule and perhaps shouldn’t have. For example, a hire car in France would have been a better idea, but I did get to do really fast in the TGV from Lyon to Paris in 2 hours.
I found this kind of extended travelling quite complicated and demanding at times and I spent quite some time every few days searching through options and trying to make decisions from a large number of choices and their associated costs.
I will be glad to be home and back into my work. I have no regrets, and had no major problems or loses. I had no accidents or ill health and I never missed any of my flights or trains. Generally, I found things would often just fall into place.
To sum up, I’d say travelling is easier than it’s ever been before thanks to good accomodation operators, better transport networks, and most important of all, those wonderful iPhone apps.

Every new building in Hong Kong wants to out do all the others. I went to the tallest building in Hong Kong, the ICC on Kowloon at dusk and watched the beautiful city lights switch on, many have full sides covered in massive LED displays.

It feels weird on the 109th floor, 484 metres up in the Ozone Bar which is open to the air above and looking out on the huge expanse of humanity and construction – totally awesome – just staggering.

The sense of power and dominance of the Asian economy is right before your eyes – these guys go all the way – way, way, WAY over the top – it’s unstoppable, it’s just so impressive, heart stopping, it’s all so obvious, there’s no question – this economy is the most powerful and vibrant in the world – and there’s the proof, right before your eyes.

I’m trying to see a few different parts of the city and learn a few place names. I’m in the Wan Chai district in the middle of Hennessey Road, a place called The Check Inn, and Im glad I decided to get my own room, it’s a funny little concrete box with windows that can’t be opened and the toilet is also the shower, a kind of all-in-one wet room. This place is right in the middle of the city on the main raod where the trams run by. Further to the East is the Causeway Bay with the huge Times Square Mall a shiny new shopping precinct with LED screens the size of tennis courts Back down the road is Central and further Sheung Wan where there’s all the massive stores like Ralph Lauren, Gap, Dolce Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, and numerous other brands I have no interest in. The prices seem to be more or less the same as in New Zealand. These are fancy stores with perfectly presented attractive young Chinese women serving – there’s no bargains here.

First day I went up the cable car to Victoria Peak, everyone has to do it and it’s no wonder. Yesterday I walked around the old town and found little hidden pockets of the old Hong Kong, the original brick colonial hospital, the police station and some buddhist temples which are just small rooms open to the street with old Chinese people, altars with burning insence. I imagine there would have been much more of these 20 years ago.
Of course, everywhere there’s hordes of people going places, it’s really crowded. I ended up taking the underground, called the MTR, at rush hour, Friday at 6pm and had the ultimate Hong Kong experience – unbelievable.
Kowloon is on the other side of the harbour where the ICC building is and where I also visited the Temple Street Night Market with all the amazing amount of fake watches, bags, jewelrey and cheap electronics and a ton of other stuff – so much stuff.
Yesterday I visited Wan Chai Computer Centre where all the good quality stuff is, and compared a few prices. The name brands are almost the same price as anywhere but there are all sorts of great gadjets of every kind, and two big packed floors of it.

There is so much to see here but there’s one big problem, it’s hot, swelteringly hot, about 32 degrees and the humidity is up to 85% – you get moist just walking down the street. I shower about 3 times a day, there’s only so much time you can spend in the heat and you need to plan the day to get back to the accomodation again to refresh. The stores are all air conditioned but soon as you step outside again – woosh, that heat!

Again, sorry for the bad grammar and spelling, I will add more details and clean it up later.

After three full days in Vienna I got my bearings and some kind of feeling for the city. It’s quite dignified with less of the exuberance of the other cities I visited. It feels very safe and somewhat serious in a way. No citizen of Vienna will ever forget it was the place that Mozart, Strauss and Beethoven produced their masterpieces – the reminders are everywhere, gold statues, gold theatres and even the buskers on the streets play classical music.

It was for me a taste of the German temperament and yet the Austrians I spoke to say it’s less friendly in Germany, apparently Austrians are more easy going. In terms of the language, it’s German with a few different words and an accent, not that I’d know.

The most striking feature of Vienna is all the massive buildings everywhere from the 18th and 19th century. Massive palaces and government buildings. There’s nothing quaint about Vienna, it’s all solid buildings. Everything interesting is behind a thick stone facade –it’s hard to find anything because it all looks the same and there’s little signage, perhaps a brass plaque when you are at the right address. I like the way they limit commercial signage on the streets in European cities, generally. It feels like an indoor city to me, everything is hidden away. I think it would take a long time to get to know this city.

The underground system is only about 3 years old and the modern  trams run everywhere – along all the roads more tracks than any other city I visited.  Today I just wondered about for a few hours because I had an evening flight. I discovered some charming places that I’d love to visit again.

I found SingSing the best vinyl record store so far with some incredible collectables. For example, an LP from 1964 of Janis Joplin singing in folk clubs – and, the first Beatles album, Meet The Beatles, a European pressing, not Parlophone, selling for 90E. Then down an alley with a canopy of green vegetation I found some restaurants I’d love to go to if in Vienna again – one I recognised from in a guide I read called La Boheme. I also found a few music venues where I could have played, but all to late. It’s not easy trying to learn a city and work the social media sites and find what’s going on when you only have a few days. There’s also the site-seeing and was so glad Guy pointed me in the direction of the Hunderwasser, it’s not mentioned in any of the ‘what to see’ guide onlines like Lonely Planet; they seem to point you in the direction of museums and art galleries that I’ve had enough of.

Vienna has it’s own special charm and one that took me a while to discover. Interesting to see jugglers instead of window washers at the intersections – so creative. I hired a bit twice and it’s definitely the only way to go because the distances can be quite far when walking everywhere – and the trams never go in the direction I want to go.

But the workings of the transport system were a bit too tricky for my liking and I was fined on the spot 103E for not ‘verifying’ my ticket on the Underground. I tried to explain I bought the ticket in good faith but I had no idea I needed to do something else to it, all the signs are in German and it’s hard to know what the procedures are when you’re in a new city for a few days, it all fell on deaf ears – there was to be no flexibility, I tried, politely, they listened politely, and they stayed firm – so German, it’s a worry, and for a moment there I  reflected on the fact that Germany is still not allowed to develop a military of any significance.

Yesterday evening I really felt a part of this city and it’s people, and like a real local. I was eating sausage and watching an outdoor movie in one of the big plaza areas. I spoke at length to the production manager, Rabart about the system, top of the range L’Acoustics and all the latest delay and enhancement gear, and all fully backed up with a massive auxillary battery power – impressive.

It was a wonderful and relaxed atmosphere and I chatted with all sorts of people – good to see how they do these big free outdoor family events – it felt so safe – nice, civilised people enjoying a warm evening out: little visible security, and in contrast, for a change, not rows and rows of traffic cones everywhere and hundreds of people from the Council in safety vests keeping an eye on you. I have got some good ideas of how to do outdoor community events. The selling of alcohol is not a big issue like in New Zealand. It interesting how all the food sellers are allowed to sell alcohol, not that I drink but I think that’s a much fairer system in terms of allowing the vendors to make money. All have beer on tap and wine.

The one thing I’m going to recommend to all travellers is that, in my opinion, travel insurance is an unneccessary cost, I wasted $780. Maybe I should have only got it for the 10 days I was in the States. Next time I’d rather take my chances – because I think the chances of something really serious happening are quite low and can be managed with local services and a flight home if really serious – travel insurance is a con and plays on fear. Why do people always plan their lives for the worst case scenario.

Out of time, sorry for all the typos and mistakes, I need to read up on Hong Kong, luckily, I have my accomodation booked on Hennesey Road and a friend who I met in Stockholm who’s going to show me around – but I know so little about the place, it’s time to do bit of research on the Lonely Planet site.

All it took was a wiener schnitzel, some yoga and a bike ride to get into Vienna. It was never part of my wish list to visit this city – it just happened to be my departure point from Europe on my air ticket so I thought, why not. Arriving at night after 12 hours of travelling I had to summon the energy to figure out yet another public transport system, my fifth now not counting London and Paris that I have a basic knowledge of, but Vienna was a challenge.

I have had little exposure to the German language let alone Austrian apart from a few words watching Hogan’s Heroes on TV in my childhood, ‘Raus!, Raus!, Es ist verbotten!’ and my neighbour Kirsten who says ‘Guten morgen’. Even finding my way out of the metro took a few moments, Engang. It doesn’t help newbies like me to figure out Wein also means Vienna – ok, got it.
But the first words I needed to get my head around were, the Schottenring where I need to change metro lines, take the Karlsplatz direction to the Ruthaus where I needed to Engang, and Josefstadfer Strase and Lange Gasse were the streets leading to my hotel.

The Lehrerhaus Pension is a budget hotel in the smelly old carpet style and there’s no atmosphere and nobody looks like they want to be here, especially the receptionist. They give you a bunch of keys, one for the front door, one for the internal door on your floor, one for the door to your room and one for a safety deposit box in your room.

Nearby is a hotel called The Rathaus, – glad I didn’t check in there.
I have been using Booking.com and I would discourage people from it. They charge a premium on top of the usual rates (go to the hotel’s own website), and they boast far too much about the properties virtues. Walking around the streets I have seen much better, modern, open, fresh hotels with busy reception areas, bike hire, a restaurant and a lively feeling of travel and travellers. At the Lehrerhaus I fully expect to open a cupboard and find an entrance to an secret annexe with a family still hiding from the Nazis. I have come to the opinion I would rather stay in a dorm in a modern hostel than an old budget hotel.
The first job was to find a laundromat to wash and overdue bag of clothes. The receptionist sent me off in the wrong direction, when I eventually found it two hours later there was no attendant only a coin interface with all the instructions in German, of course. Having loaded up and paid my money the door wouldn’t latch shut properly and water was sloshing out. I couldn’t change machines without going off to get more coins, and it was Sunday and everything was shut. So I wedged a couple of empty plastic bottles in to hold the door shut. When I returned, the entire floor of the laundromat was covered in water and my clothes sat in a pool of water in the machine.

I was getting a bit travel-weary I think, just too much stimulation from too many wonderful new places – just too much stuff to process and figure out, and no one to bounce ideas off. I’m generally self-sufficient and have done really well so far, but Vienna was one learning curve too many. That evening I found a restaurant called Cafe Hummel in my neighbourhood and had a magnificent wiener schnitzel for 22Euro, although, later I learned they could be had at numerous other places for 9Euro, but never mind.

The next morning I did some yoga which always puts me in a better frame of mind and hired a bike and went cycling through the Prater. This is an enormous park the Habsburg family used as their private hunting grounds and much of it still looks like a forest. I did a Facetime call to Luca and Julia while cycling along and it was good to chat with the family. I had planned on a circuit that took in the Danube and the strip of land that runs down the middle. Suddenly, it poured-down with rain and I just manged to get a cafe overlooking a water-skiing set up on the river using a high-wire circular cabling system – looked like fun.

There are good cycle paths in Vienna and other cyclists I met were so helpful. I needed to rely on a paper map because the Facetime calls had depleted my phone battery but I prefer paper maps anyway.

The circuit took me back up the Danube Canal which runs back into the central city. A local cyclist explained to me the ring-road system in Vienna and cheerfully called out, ‘Enjoy Vienna’ as he cycled off.

It down poured with rain again and I kept going because I had to get the hire bike back. I got soaking wet but the air was warm it didn’t matter and I wasn’t cold. I returned to the hotel, changed into my best clothes and went to the Musikverein Goldener Saal to attend the Mozart concert that I’m so glad I booked a few weeks in advance. It was a full-house and magical. I was so glad to be in Vienna. The concert ended with Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss as an encore and not on the program but I recognised the famous waltz from the opening of the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001 Space Odyssey.

It’s amazing how a good meal, some exercise and some live music can change your whole outlook on life.

The purpose of my visit to central France in the Bourgogne and Loire region was to look at river boats and see how it all works and hopefully talk with people first hand. It was interesting and I now have a better perspective on the boating life.

I didn’t manage to actually stay on one which was my hope but I did mange to get aboard a few and have some chats with owners. The two optons are basically the barge style and the cruiser style. The Dutch steel ones can be really old, dating back as far as the 1890’s, many are completely renovated and there’s new ones now made in the same style. The Dutch steel’s have plenty of interior room but there are big costs involved in the cleaning of them and lifting them from water because they weight about 10 tonne.
The second type, (and I’m not including all the weird odd-looking boats with no outside areas that are also available), but the lighter cruisers with fibre glass or wooden hulls and often white – what a New Zealander would call a ‘launch’ and the Americans call a ‘motor yacht’. These are smaller, lighter and easier to clean, there are also less costs involved. They have slightly less charm but some look really good – others, have a bit too much white plastic.
My preference would be to have the aft deck, where you’d spend a good deal of your time, with plenty of space and easily accessible to the interior. I’ve seen some with the aft on the same level as the interior, no steps. Some of them have too many steps in and out and that would be annoying after a while.

Canal touring is quite a busy activity, it’s not just a matter of sitting up on the aft deck under the canopy with a glass of wine or strumming a guitar all day because there are locks, lots of locks. In one day you might encounter twenty or more locks.

These locks are a two person job, one to operate on the shore and one to steer the boat, but some people can do it on their own. I’m not sure how it works and I guess there’s a few things there to learn.

Also, there’s the mooring fees, it’s free in some places along the banks in the country, a small charge where there’s facilities in a town, more where there’s better facilities to power up and drain off, and on it goes I guess, and it’s about $75 a night in Paris if you can find a spot in the peak season.

The cost of a river boat ranges roughly from $100,000 to $300,000. Storing them over winter has monthly costs because they’re not too cosy in winter. Although, many now have heat pumps and the older ones have cute little log burners. I heard of a guy in his 90’s living in a huge barge on the Amsterdam canals that looks like a piece of floating junk, and he stays on-board all winter every winter – must have a good wooly jumper or three I’d say – remember, the canals freeze over in winter.

 A taste of the old Amsterdam last night when about forty horse-drawn carriages did their annual trot around the old town. Big, beautiful horses of every breed went past me in a parade of rolling antiques. From the sound all the horses were well-shod and looked well-groomed too and many with their manes plaitted, and the occupants were dressed in period clothes. It’s Saturday night and people are out eating in restaurants alongside the canal all cheering them on. The carriages are originals with examples from every period; heavy cart horses pulling heavy carriages, others pulling passenger coaches, light four-wheeled open rigs and lighter two wheeled traps or hansom cabs with a single horse. I thought it was a bit surreal with so many coming through one afer the other. I had been in Amsterdam for 5 days this was my last evening. I had spent so much time absorping all the amazing history of this place, and now I could really get a full sense of what it was like. Back in the day all the horse droppings were swept into the canals and of course the smell became a problem – probably everything got thrown in the canal, it was probably a big open sewer. Not now, it’s safe to swim in it, apparently, more than you can say about New Zealand rivers.

I tried to take photos but the iPhone has its limitations with it’s auto-light metering and everything looks too dark or too light, nevertheless I snapped away not quite sure if I should make more effort to capture them, perhaps try to find a better spot with some decent backlight – but instead I decided to just enjoy the moment – sorry the pics aren’t better. Enjoying the moment is something I’m getting used to – there are so many –everyday is full of wonderful new experiences.

Suddenly they all came to halt and I chatted with some drivers. Two gentlemen probably about my age and  I asked whether all theses rigs were from within Holland, they said many were from Amsterdam with the carriages stored in the central city and some others were from Germany and Belgium. I think this collection of carriages would be priceless and the magnificent horses would be worth a lot too.
It’s also another reminder of how much wealth has passed through this city – and how much of it reamins. The key moment that made Holland flourish was throwing out the Catholics – yes, I’ve the paintings with monks put on boats and asked to go. The merchant burghers of the city wanted a progressive regime and the catholics are regressive – they hold back new thinking, for this alone I admire the Dutch.

Sanders, my bike tour guide from the previous day said the same thing but more bluntly than others, ‘we successfully pillaged the world for about 300 years from about 1600 to 1800’.

The Dutch were the most powerful traders on the globe with thousands of ships build in their massive ship yards going to every corner of the globe. Abel Tasman charting one section of coast of New Zealand. I even found the reference on an original globe in the Rijksmuseum. I’m not sure what section of coast that is – Banks Peninsula?

When it comes to making dykes, canals and dams the Dutch are the world’s leading engineers. What’s been created here is undoudtedly one of the nicest cities in the world for strolling and biking around, and I love biking.

In Amsterdam the bike has absolute priority and it’s all enshrined in various laws – and it’s so much fun. There’s trams, bikes, pedestrians, cars, scooters all swerving around one another and happily co-existing in the same space. Surprisingly, there’s a very low rate of injury – it seems to works; people smile, call out, ring their bells and are so considerate. The locals who know exacly where they are going race along and shout out to you if you’re not over on the left. I found myself walking in bike lanes all the time and nearly run down a number of times. They say they hope to eliminate motor vehicles from the city completely one day.

I have added a pic that may not be clear but it shows a new project where they have blocked a 100 metre section of the canal, dug down to create three levels of parking for bikes and cars, and will rebuild the canal again on top – amazing.
Kerkstaat was the street where my hostel was and it was the first place name I tried to memorise, the second was Keizersgracht where the tram stops, the other is Prinsengracht nearby with the Anne Frank Haus and loads of other beautiful shops and restaurants with homes looking out on the canal.
Sorry if this blog is full of typos I need to get on and no time to proof read – will fix later.

People ask me how I can afford to travel for such a long time but I have managed to keep the costs quite low. I’ve planned in advance and I’ve made comfort compromises all along the way. It’s also cheaper to visit a number of places as part of a round trip than going to a series of places at separate times. In terms of planning, the first priority was to maintain the ongoing fixed costs at home then figure out how much I’d need on the journey. This would include local travel, accomodation and food, plus entry fees for the museums and galleries. I travel cheap because I sleep in hostels in 4 or 6 bed dorms, I seldom eat at restaurants and don’t drink alcohol. I take extra food from the free or low cost breakfasts at hostels and keep it for my lunch. I travel on public transport or hire a bike – never taxis or Ubers. I always look for the lowest cost option to get from the airport to the city centre. I’m able to walk with all my gear for 3 0r 4 kilometres. I carry a  bottle of water and a nut and dried fruit mix for snacks that I buy at the supermarket. I buy muesli and a pottle of yoghurt to mix together for my breakfast if there’s no free one, and I only buy a coffee occasionally and I have a stash of tea bags. That’s how I travel cheap. The current hostel I’m in here in Amsterdam is the worst yet – the mattress is hard foam, the windows don’t open properly and my room mates come and go at all hours through the night. The wierdest one I had was two guys who arrived at 3am in my dorm with no luggage and slept in their clothes – what’s going on there?

Last night I played at The Temple Bar in Gamla Stan, the old town on a tiny island in central Stockholm. I just turned up with my guitar and the manager, Philip, who used to be a roadie said go ahead and mic-ed me up.

I haven’t done much practise lately and my voice is not all there but I was surprised how much material I could remember and played for about 40 minutes. As usual, I got the best response from Stand By Me and Many Rivers To Cross.
For my last full day in Stockholm I decided to visit the big IKEA because it’s a Swedish success story and I’m interested in design and modern retailing.
It’s out in the suburbs in Kungens Kurva but there’s a free (gratis) bus on the hour. The main showroom floors are 4 circular levels than kind of down spiral. On the top floor are samples of complete show home suites in various themes and the restaurant where I had a vegetarian meal for 29 Krona, about $10.

The scope of it is quite amazing with huge areas dedicated to lighting, kitchenware and storage, and there’s a team of people sitting at computers helping customers design their kitchens. I wasn’t there to buy but I took lots of photos and have plenty of ideas. It’s all about creative ways to optomise interior space. As the world becomes more crowded people need to look at ways to reduce their personal living space. I did buy a couple of small items and went to the exit at which point I had to walk through the warehouse area where all the flat packs are collected, then to the checkouts were there’s another bistro – coffe and food everywhere. So many staff, so well organised, so friendly. Sweden.

Before I leave just want to add a few more observations and notes:
A Fika – that’s a term to describe meeting someone for a coffee and a sticky bun, usually a cinnamon bun. It’s a Swedish thing and there’s been a movie made with that as the title. It’s also like asking for a date, ‘Let’s fika.’
Taxation – I spoke at length with a young guy called Lucas and he explained the tax system; the rubbish guy earns the same as the doctor. An employer needs to pay 30% in tax directly to the govermnent for each employer he has. Say a person gets paid 1000 Krona, that person is taxed 300K and gets 700K in the hand and the employer pays an additional 300K to the government. Lucas’s brother is a top lawyer and earns NZ$150,000 a year and is taxed 60%.

That’s why they have free education, free health, great infrustructure, (for example, they are currently building a big flood gate in the central city to prepare for global warming). There are so many examples of their progressive thinking; they fully expect to be carbon zero by 2020. It’s a good, healthy, safe place to live.

When I read stories from New Zealand on the news I’m just so bewildered by the backward thinking; the South Island farmer who dranks from his own stream to prove rivers are clean in New Zealand. Let’s send him more water to drink from more rivers, starting with the Manawatu River. Then Gerry Brownlee who called a person a ‘public transport activist’ as if it’s a subversive idea to increase rail and cycleways networks.
And as for Mike Hoskings saying NZers don’t like public transport. ‘because we like cars and cars need roads’. Someone needs to pour a bucket of cold water on his head and tell him to wake up. I wonder how much he donates to the National Party?

Sooner or later New Zealand needs to embrace higher taxation and ban people from owning more than two or three properties. We need a country that is for the many, not the few.
When I return home I plan to become more politically active, which unfortunately, will change relationships with my family and friends who support the current dopey, delusional, out-of-date mindset that has become entrenched thanks to the normalization of Republican-style thinking and the politics of selfish greed and the forced impoverishment of more people every year – I’ll take a breath now . . .  I’ll be calling people out, because if left unchallenged, we will keep going down the road to nowhere.
I apologise for the poor grammar, syntax and spelling; always in a rush.

My niece, Hanna, said New Zealanders have three ways to describe water temperature when taking a swim; “Bloody freezing, nice once you’re in, and beautiful”. It’s so true and today I’m feeling pretty proud, I swam in the Baltic Sea in the Swedish archipelago off the sland of Moja for a good 20 minutes out about 500 metres, in beautiful sunshine, which helps. Bloody freezing, but ok once you’re in.

Moja is at latitude 59.4º N, that’s closer to the North Pole than the Orkney Islands above Scotland at 58º N, and to give some perspective, London is at 51º.

In 3 days I’m swimming in Vansbro, a river swim, and I wanted to check if I could swim in really cold water, and I think I can, it was 14º in the water, which is not too bad.

The Vansbrosimningin that I’m all booked and paid up for, it cost $150 actually, (but they give you a meal that the end), is 2 km downstream then 1 km upstream. There’s a board walk along the river edge, so I guess if it gets unbearable I’ll just get out. The tri-ath wetsuit I have barely lets any water in which helps too.

I stayed just one night in Moja, I chose it because some Swedish people on a plane suggested it. A 4 hour ferry ride north from Stockholm and a spectacular journey – so many beautiful houses along the shore.
The ferry stops at numerous islands very briefly to load and unload passengers. They use the front of the boat, it’s really quite clever, there’s no mooring ropes, they just bump the boat up to the jetty and pause there for a few minutes, roll a gantry out and in, then zoom off to the next island.

On the journey I saw a young Swedish family; mum, dad and the kids take their morning nude swim from their jetty – the Swedes live a good life I think.

The day before I took a bike ride all the way around Sodermalm Island, one of the main islands of Stockholm. It took about 2 hours and people were all out in the sun – there’s even a small beach and the cutest caravan cafe I’ve ever seen.

The Isle of Wight has a bit of everything they have on the English mainland; a Roman villa, a medieval church, narrow lanes and tiny villages, and a rolling hillside like you’re in Sussex. What it hasn’t got is all the urban problems of the dense cities; there’s no crowds and no congestion. A ten minute fast-ferry or hovercraft ride from Portsmouth and you’re in a safe, quiet and very quaint slice of England. The whole of the island is just one electorate, Conservative, and apparently they voted for Brexit. I spend two nights there and was shown around by my father-in-law and his wife who live in a beautiful little cottage by an open field. We visited Yarmouth and dined in Ryde. I stayed in a cheap hotel called The Wight with an indoor pool and was allocated a breakfast table setting in advance. “Mr Richards, you’re here at setting number 29 – we are famous for our breakfasts.” Along with the Full English they offer the ‘Jurassic’ which is a double Full English or whatever you want, they also serve herring, haddock and kippers for breakfast – I guess you could order that as well as the Jurassic – they’re famous for their breakfasts.

Oregon followed Colorado and Washington State in making the recreational use of cannabis legal and since then the cultivation of it has become big business. The ranch where I was staying is currently experimenting with the propagation of the plant and I was shown around their set up. There are many varieties with the most popular being Sativa and Indica, and it is this one that commands a higher price and the one they are focusing on. In the town of Bend in central Oregon with a population of about 80,000 there is already 14 stores exclusively selling pot. The price for the premium organic product is high, especially outside the September and October glut period when the outdoor crops are harvested. Outdoor product is known as ‘dirt-weed’: the set-up I was shown is growing indoors, a premium organic Indica sensimilla under special LEDs. The farmer I spoke to doesn’t smoke pot himself because he’s not really interested and hasn’t the time while running a busy farm with 31 horses along with his core business combining various silica and calcium powder ingredients to make the compound used to make plaster casts used in medical and dental applications – but that’s another story.
I was interested in the medicinal use of cannabis oil but apparently the recreational product is currently much bigger business. The science of the horticulture and propagation of the plants has captured the scientific mind of my host, and of course, the realistic possibility of making around US$2,500 a pound is very motivating.
Just a final note, a few have asked, no pot was offered to me or was it requested. The cultivation is in the early stages and the tour was centred around the horticultural and the commercial aspects.