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A couple months after my first conference in NZ, I was invited for another one in Auckland, this time for PMI (Project Management Institute).  It wasn’t so much of an invitation as it was an acceptance as I had to submit a proposal of what I was to speak about in regards to their theme – the next evolution of project management.  As my topic at the previous conference was in regards to transformation, and was well-received, I thought it was worth trying and went ahead and submitted virtually the exact same subject and sent along the YouTube video as an abstract in my proposal and surprise, a few weeks later I was accepted as a speaker.  My firm was especially supportive and proud as they were sponsoring the event anyway.

I had flown out the night before and stayed at a hotel nearby the main venue which was at the SkyCity Convention Centre.  It was spectacular in that I learned so much and met so many great folks. I had an excellent time.  I think that I have been bitten by the conference bug and it is my hope that I can attend more in the future. 

Day 1

The cats in their usual corners greeting me the night before as I depart.

Wearable art of Wellington on display at the airport.

This seems to be the typical snapshot of “road warriors”.

Lovely night shot of one of the bridges in Auckland.

Breakfast session with one of the keynote speakers before the conference officially begins.

Good large crowd.

Sponsors with my company in top tier.

A typical Maori tradition in how kick-off an event.

Maori folk song.

And of course, a Haka!

Keynote speaker working the room. He really gets the energy built up.

Main hall gathering for morning tea.

Firm providing free coffee. Nice!

The next keynote speaker from the US was awesome.

End of the day and people milling outside before heading out for the night.

Atop the Sky Tower

F and I have been at the top of the Sky Tower before years ago when we had first visited New Zealand.  Some friends insisted we all go up and we were fortunate to time it so that we could see the sunset from high above.

Day 2

I had done my presentation on the second day.  This time around there were a few things that I had done better than my previous version, but overall, I was rather disappointed that I didn’t make that much improvement in my delivery.  I want to have more opportunities and I really think that this is something that I can improve upon and make it a true facet to offer in my skill-sets.  – K

PMI Conference in Auckland A couple months after my first conference in NZ, I was invited for another one in Auckland, this time for PMI (Project Management Institute).  

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The spring equinox is almost upon us – its still been pretty cold, but the sun’s been shining the past few days, and we’ve taken advantage of it as much as possible.

Poetry I can understand!

Tai Chi at the Square

  We went to Oriental Bay Beach.

  Took Chandi to Central Park for her first walk of the season.

  We even had people over for lunch! – F

Is it Spring-time Yet? The spring equinox is almost upon us - its still been pretty cold, but the sun's been shining the past few days, and we've taken advantage of it as much as possible.

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We had a relatively quieter Eid from the one earlier this year.  We had purposely made it quiet so we can spend that day between both of us and just enjoy the day.

The selfie right after prayers.

Walking along and we found a lovely tree already flowering before Spring time.

Had a nice hearty brunch.

Strolled to the waterfront later in the day.

Sail boats out on a lovely day.

Seemed like a perfect day for a sightseeing heli ride.

Skate park

Seems like a lot of fun.

Family photos

We even convinced some of the family to send us pictures of their fancy dress-up for their Eid prayers.  – K

  Eid ul-Adha We had a relatively quieter Eid from the one earlier this year.  We had purposely made it quiet so we can spend that day between both of us and just enjoy the day.

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Every year my workplace holds at least one day of closing the offices so that everyone can spend the day to volunteer called – Closed for Good.  The intent is for everyone to get involved in the local community through different organisations and schools and elder-care homes to help with financial literacy.  It’s a great programme and was received rather well.

I was able to spend the day hanging out with young students in instructing them to work on a project in creating a game that children would enjoy playing and help them in learning financial know-how.  It was great to see how each different group tackled the problem and what ideas that each came up with.  Ah… to be young and so full of brilliant, innovative ideas and not be scared to pursue them.  🙂

Students gather at our station to learn exactly what they will be doing.

Volunteers collecting before the students arrival.

Students gather to hear what they will be working on.

View from the office.

They had a camera crew and the leadership team – including the CEO – going around seeing the work in progress amongst the different events being held within the city.  I was able to talk to said CEO for a few minutes to explain what we were doing and was even featured in their promo commercial for about split second.  😀   – K

Lunch break for everyone.

Taking photos and video for the promo.

Kiosk entrance to the space.

Snapshot from video.

Wrapping up.

Promo video

Closed for Good Every year my workplace holds at least one day of closing the offices so that everyone can spend the day to volunteer called - …

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Our favorite food truck is this Indonesian one called Garuda Truck, and they have the most amazing Mie Goreng, which also happens to be halal 🙂 . There is always a line at Garuda, so you know its extra delicious! We used to be limited to getting Garuda at either the weekly Night Market or at festivals, but a few months ago, they opened up a regular kiosk at the movie theater, so now we can get it prettymuch any day we’re willing to take a few minutes detour.

With Garuda being regularly accessible, its been a while since we’ve been to the Night Market on Cuba Street, so even though it was cold, we decided to swing by. – F

Street Salsa Soiree (try saying that quickly 🙂 )

Garuda always hits the spot

My second favorite halal food truck

  Night Market Our favorite food truck is this Indonesian one called Garuda Truck, and they have the most amazing Mie Goreng, which also happens to be halal 🙂 .

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We visited the Wellington City Gallery to view a temporary exhibit on display called “This is New Zealand.”  It was to showcase the role that art played in addressing the national identity of the country over the past several decades.  There was a variety of different showpieces many of which sparked some debate and discussion about the indigenous Maori people to many of the historical references of having NZ as a destination as well as some of the NZ-based products that had influence in the global economy.

Overall it was interesting as well as informative and did probe some ideas and thoughts about the history of the country and what its future had in store.

Maori-carvings in Piano

One gorgeous piece of art was a piano that had Maori carvings within it.  We were fortunate to have just arrived in time to see someone play on it.

The World under Surveillance

Another art installation was to showcase how the western world was unified and organised around a constant surveillance set up between all the national intel organisations.  – K

Maori treaty

NZ Made and Tourism

This is New Zealand We visited the Wellington City Gallery to view a temporary exhibit on display called "This is New Zealand."  It was to showcase the role that art played in addressing the national identity of the country over the past several decades. 

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Matariki is the Maori name for the Pleiades star cluster, which appears in the night sky during mid-winter, and holds great importance for navigation and timing the seasons. The reappearance of Matariki marks the beginning of the Maori New Year, and was customarily a time to remember the deceased of the past year and to plan for the next year. Today, Matariki has been revived as a celebration of people, culture, language, spirituality, and history – almost like a New Zealand Thanksgiving!

There were several Matariki events throughout the city, and we made time to see three of them.

Ahi Ka

The waterfront is the de facto spot for many events, and the Maori New Year  celebration were no exception. There were Maori performers and storytellers, and even a Light Parade featuring the creations of local schools. Of course, there was Hangi (a Maori cooking style), and what is any winter get together without toasted marshmallows, fire on the water, and a bonfire!

  Matariki ki Pōneke

New Year celebrations aren’t complete without fireworks!

  Matariki at the Mosque

The Matariki event we found most interesting was the one organized by the mosque to highlight not just Maori culture, but the underlying similarities between Islamic and Maori teaching. There are not many Maori Muslims, but it was nice to see them take lead in organizing this event. A national online new service even did a piece on it.

The program started with recitation of Quranic verses in Arabic, followed by translations into the three official NZ languages – English, Maori and NZ Sign Language. Some of the children with Maori heritage read poems, and there was a presentation about Astronomy in Islam. Useful Trivia: the Matariki star cluster is typically referred to as ‘Soraya’ in the Middle East, and also considered to be the star system mentioned in Surah Najm (Quran 53:1-2).

  There were also several booths set up showcasing Maori crafts, a story telling corner for the kiddos, and even a buffet of halal Hangi 🙂 .

Flax weaving was popular

Woven from Flax leaves

All dressed up as a Maori Chief

Yumm…

Story corner

    Matariki Matariki is the Maori name for the Pleiades star cluster, which appears in the night sky during mid-winter, and holds great importance for navigation and timing the seasons.

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The Parliament offers daily guided tours and I’ve been meaning to to take one for a while now. A friend and I finally signed up and found the hour-long tour to be quite interesting.

Fun fact #1: NZ is one of only five countries in the world without a written constitution. Fun fact #2: The NZ Parliament doesn’t have a Senate, only a House of Representatives. Fun fact #3: NZ has an official Coat of Arms.

Aside from the governing structure, a good portion of the tour covered the history & architecture of the the building itself, from the fire of 1907 and reconstruction to the earthquake-strengthening of the 90s, as well as the artwork throughout the public spaces.

Pictures weren’t allowed during the tour, but it was all quite fascinating. K is usually the one taking pictures, but I remembered to take a few after the tour 🙂 .

  And then took the long way back home.  – F

  Parliament Visit The Parliament offers daily guided tours and I've been meaning to to take one for a while now.

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The winter solstice is here, and I’ve become a real homebody due to the cold (hence the obligatory GOT reference 😉 ). Other than going to the gym or the grocery store, I don’t get out much, and it suits me just fine 🙂 . Its been cold and wet and windy, and Netflix has been a lifesaver (I am officially hooked on Korean dramas 😀 ).

The cats have been feeling the cold too, and have actually been paying attention to us to get that extra bit of warmth. – F

The almost-daily view these days

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Keeping me company while I Netflix

Atleast the cats have some green to eat

Keeping me company while I work

Keeping me company while I work

Trying to catch that little bit of rare sunlight

Winter is Here The winter solstice is here, and I've become a real homebody due to the cold (hence the obligatory GOT reference 😉 ).

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Ramadan this year was one of our best in a while. We had short days, with the fast only about 11.5 hours, which is basically like skipping lunch 🙂 . We were also able to attend taraweeh prayers quite regularly, as the mosque in the CBD had organized the prayers for the first time (generally, this mosque is set up for congregational prayers during work hours as a convenience for city workers). We even made it to the main Islamic Center for the community iftaars a couple of times.

Taraweeh regulars at the city mosque

Community iftaar at the main mosque

Community iftaar at the main mosque

We also manage to have an accidental adventure after taraweeh one night, when we discovered that we had both left our keys at home, thereby leaving us locked out of our apartment. I called our landlord (she lives close by), but unfortunately she didn’t answer, so we ended up calling a locksmith 🙂 .

Pop Up Iftar

A local organization had organized a ‘pop-up’ iftaar – basically, they had rented out a storefront for a day on a busy street, and advertised it in the local paper for anyone to have iftaar with the Muslim community. The turn-out was quite good, and we were glad to be part of it.

Iftar at the Parliament

We were quite lucky to be invited to the annual iftaar at the Parliament. The event was well organized, the crowd was diverse, and we got to meet not only MPs, but also ambassadors from the various embassies and consulates.

Michael Wood, Parliament Under-Secretary for Ethnic Communities

K snuck in a picyure of the the voting chamber 🙂

Michael Wood, Parliament Under-Secretary for Ethnic Communities

  Eid

Eid was the busiest we have had in a really long time. We went for prayers early in the morning, went to multiple open houses, ate delicious food all day long, and didn’t get home till late 🙂 .  – F

Ramadan & Eid Ramadan this year was one of our best in a while. We had short days, with the fast only about 11.5 hours, which is basically like skipping lunch 🙂 .

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As a kid, I used to love Lego.  Ok, I’m not a kid anymore and I still love Lego.  🙂   Really, if I had space in our tiny apartment, I would buy legos and be filling our space with it.  What I really enjoyed was making my own creations rather just following the instructions in building what was pictured on the box.  So that is why I was so excited about seeing a Lego build exhibition come to our neck of the woods.  What we saw were just some of the most amazing and imaginative creations from Lego building blocks.

Tickets and my little souvenir.

Christmas time over a small town.

Working cranes.

A section of a large town that was built with a volcano in the centre.

Subway station with a moving train that circulated the entire city.

Another section with the city centre.

Bustling city with plenty of things to see and notice.

A New Zealand based company selling flexible legos that work with original legos. Definitely looks to be promising future gift for niece and nephew, maybe.

Jurassic Park.

Bat-room. Tee hee.

Cinema house with some of your favourite characters.

Is it Hoth in here?

Oh… its the Yellow Submarine, the yellow submarine!

Very cool diorama of a Star Wars video game.

Akira!

Lots of train models in action.

F noticing some of the details in the elevated train.,

Avengers tower.

Guardian of the Galaxy. And the Shield Helicarrier.

Each build was unique and creative in its own way.  Those that were based upon franchises were just brilliant – Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Marvel – to name a few.  There were some lego sets from the past – the 80s and 90s – that folks brought out.  And there were some mechanical inventions made with bricks that were moving and served some purpose.  The most impressive ones, I think, were the massive displays of elaborate settings of working cities and landscapes.  There are some very talented folks out there with a lot of ingenuity.  – K

Not too sure of where this comes from.

This was supposed to be geophrahic topology of some mountain within NZ.

Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.

Millenium Falcom build competition.

Some models of real spaceships

Millenium Falcom. This model is one of, if not the, favourite of mine.

“Number 5 is alive!”

Beautiful castle with a moat.

Lord of the Rings, the huge battle of Minas Tirith.

They Eye of Sauron

Bounty hunter, Boba Fett’s ship.

Another view of the city with the train passing through again.

Famous build boxes from Lego circa 1982.

Brick Con As a kid, I used to love Lego.  Ok, I'm not a kid anymore and I still love Lego. 

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A few weeks back, I was asked by my consulting firm if I would be interested to speak at a conference as the person that was originally asked was not available as he was busy with a client.  My knee-jerk response was “absolutely!” as (1) I was getting a little stressed at work and was looking for a change and (2) it would give me an opportunity to stretch myself in a capacity that I haven’t pursued in quite awhile.

It’s not that I’m used to public speaking.  But the stage-fright that I used to have that entirely consumed me has become more of an adrenaline rush to make me want to try it even more.  Well, not entirely so.  But I am finding that I am liking it the more as I do it more.  And if this leads to new and different things in my career, then why not.

Programme for the conference.

My topic scheduled for the first day.

They already had the topic laid out for me.  I was supposed to come up with content and present as a best practice case study.  So outside of my work time, I did my research and called upon colleagues and friends to pick their brains on how I can flesh out the presentation and how I could present it.  Working from a skeletal structure, I had slides ready to go.  I just had to practice speaking to it several times with F and some of my colleagues at work so to ensure that it would seem that I knew what I was talking about.  😉

Ready or not, I had to take the stage.  And after my presentation, I was able to participate in a Q&A panel with 3 other presenters.  It was a truly an awesome experience!

Auckland was amazing.  Though, sadly, as with most other conferences, you don’t really get the chance to check out the venue all that much as one is so busy during the event.  But I tried to make the most of it as I could.  It was fortunate that I was staying in the same hotel as where the conference was being held as it made it super convenient and I didn’t have to go about the city.  But that was also the disadvantage in that I didn’t venture too far from my immediate location.

The almost-daily view these days

I had a friend that I had recently got to know through my current client – L – who I had spent most of my spare time.  We mostly hung out and had meals together talking about our families and our respective moves to NZ – me from the US and him from South Africa.  Definitely a great person that I hope to stay connected with.

I was quite happy with how my presentation went.  There were several times that my grammar was not correct and I would have preferred to emote better and put more energy into it.  But overall, I was warmly received and many folks came and told me that my topic as great and I had presented it well – which was a high honour!  But I let you see for yourself – I was fortunate in that my company had someone attend my session and record the whole thing and post it up on YouTube.  🙂   – K

  BA Conference in Auckland A few weeks back, I was asked by my consulting firm if I would be interested to speak at a conference as the person that was originally asked was not available as he was busy with a client. 

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Techweek is happening in NZ this week – its basically a festival to showcase NZ innovation, kind of similar to SXSW Interactive, with events mostly taking place in Auckland, but there are a few in Wellington as well. One that caught our eye is “The Magnificent Mahuki Tech Tour of Te Papa”.

Mahuki is a culture-tech accelerator (the world’s first to be exact), well known for developing digital businesses for the culture and heritage sector, while Te Papa Tongarewa is the national museum. This joint effort between Te Papa and Mahuki explored the digital technology, past, present and future in the museum, so we were keen to do this behind-the-scenes tour of the museum through a tech lens.

It was certainly not a typical museum tour. There were about a dozen people in our group, and we learned plenty of interesting things about the technology that goes into making a museum – from real time displays to archives and databases. There is some pretty ground-breaking things happening in the exhibition spaces, so it was fun to see the various digital interactive stuff, from new to old, and the ideas behind their conception.

The famous WW1 exhibit

K’s part of the exhibit

Low tech, but entertaining 🙂

  As an added bonus we got to see the Innovation Hub in back-of-house Te Papa – that’s the culture-tech-business incubator 🙂 . All in all, it made for a good afternoon.  – F

Tech Mahuki Techweek is happening in NZ this week - its basically a festival to showcase NZ innovation, kind of similar to SXSW Interactive, with events mostly taking place in Auckland, but there are a few in Wellington as well.

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The weather has been absolutely perfect this weekend, and we are finally going to the Wellington Zoo! It may be small, but its recognized for its conservation and sustainability efforts, and is probably one of the nicest small zoos I’ve been to. We had a great time and will definitely have to come back again for the Animal Close Encounters! – F

Cotton Top Tamarin

Golden Lion Tamarin

Golden Lion Tamarin

Blue Penguins

Sheep

Kea

Kea

Kea

Sun Bear

Sun Bear enclosure

Meerkats

Dingo

Water Dragon

Emu

Emu jsut wandering around

This guy is trying to find a way out his enclosure

Nyalas

Nyala

Giraffe

Giraffe

Lioness

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee

Cheetah

Cheetah

Red Panda

Weta spider

The Zoo’s animal hospital

whats the group plural for weasels?

Weasel

Capybara

Capybara

Playground for thise kids wanting a break from the animals

Waiting for the bus after a full day at the zoo

Zoo The weather has been absolutely perfect this weekend, and we are finally going to the Wellington Zoo…

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ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  This day is a day of remembrance among the two countries in their role and major casualties within WW1 during the fight at Gallipoli.  It is a day held with patriotic honour, historic reverence, and observance with dawn services, commemorative marches, and speeches.

I think to see all the services did strike me a little.  I had learned about WW1 from an amazing world history teacher, Mr. S, back in Middle School while in Texas.  He loved history and he loved teaching it as he was always excited to see kids faces light up as he explained the stories from the past.  WW1 was particularly poignant as he had a grandfather that was involved in the war and he has shared what I recall to be near-first-hand accounts.  In one of our last day of the lessons, we had treated us to the movie “Gallipoli“, an Australian-made movie that had Mel Gibson in it.  We were expecting a fun action-packed film.  What it turned out to be was a gut-wrenching sad story that left many of us in tears.  But it did make us think and provided us with an opportunity to talk about war and its price.  To get a bunch of kids to talk about something that deep and heavy then I would consider that successful engagement of teacher/student relationship.  But we learned from then on not to trust Mr. S’s classroom movie days.  🙂

I felt humbled to commemorate this ANZAC day within the city where they had a Field of Remembrance on display as the final year of the memorial.  Within the Salamanca Lawn site (near the Botanical Gardens) for the past four years – the 100 year anniversary of the Great War – there has been a display of the number of crosses to remember the names of each person that died during every year of the war.  So this was the final year of the memorium, we wanted to see the crosses before they were given away to families of the fallen soldiers.

  After quietly walking the grounds and honouring the fallen, we had made our way to the other side of the Botanical Gardens to the “Peace Pond” to sit by the calming waterfall and watch the ducks swimming in the pond.  It made for quite a lovely and introspective day.

  Once we were done, we headed back towards home by riding the Cable Car back down.  – K

ANZAC Day ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  This day is a day of remembrance among the two countries in their role and major casualties within WW1 during the fight at Gallipoli. 

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It was a beautiful day to be out by the harbour, but we decided to go indoors for a bit to finally check out one of the local museums – the Wellington Museum.  Just another reason we chose this city to live in – its not only a vibrant city, but has great history, culture and arts to offer as well. The museum is housed in the original Bond Store – a cargo warehouse holding facility, with interesting ads like these found around town. 

  But, first, we had to make our weekly run out to the farmer’s market as we sorely needed to restock on one of our new favourite delicacies… Feijoas aren’t native to NZ, but during the autumn season, they are everywhere (K’s colleague even handed them out at work from his backyard tree). The flavor is hard to describe, but it is oh-so-yummy!!

  We checked out the waterfront (we can’t not go there on a sunny day) – there was no wind at all and water was absolutely still – a rarity in windy Welly…

  We eventually got to the museum, where we went through the exhibits, and learned about the stories, heritage and history of the city and port of Wellington.  – F

    Wellington Museum It was a beautiful day to be out by the harbour, but we decided to go indoors for a bit to finally check out one of the local museums - the…

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The day of our flight back to NZ, F’s parents drove us to Rawalpindi, about a 5-hour drive from Qadirnagar. F spent quite a bit of her childhood in Pindi, and also went to college there.

Route to Pindi

Last QN selfie

Ready to go!

Chai break

Gardens at the rest stop

One of many marble cutting facility

Part of a wedding procession

Another rest stop

Those smiles!

  After a brief stop in Abu Dhabi, we were pleasantly surprised on the long haul flight to Sydney:  the plane was only about a quarter full, so all the passengers spread out and everyone pretty much got a row to themselves. As one of the passengers said, it was as good as flying first class.  🙂

Abu Dhabi airport

Our plane

Look at all thosse empty seats!

Look at all thosse empty seats!

Flying into Sydney

Flying into Sydney

Flying into Sydney

Flying into Sydney

Digital vending machine

The coolest McD we’ve seen in a long while 🙂

  We had a few hours layover in Sydney, and had applied for a visit visa so we could spend a few hours seeing the major sights.  Thankfully the weather was fantastic and so we just maximized our time out on the harbour.

Storing luggage at the airport

Heading to the harbour

The Rocks

First look at the Harbour Bridge

First look at the Opera House

Harbour Bridge

Opera House

Opera House

Opera House

Opera House

Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens

French crepes for lunch

Isn’t that a grand view!

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

Harbour Cruise

  We picked up the cats after arriving back in Wellington, and they seemed to have missed us… or so we think.  😉   – K

  Sydney (via Rawalpindi) The day of our flight back to NZ, F's parents drove us to Rawalpindi, about a 5-hour drive from Qadirnagar.