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Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts

Air NZ is awesome again

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Posted on 11/1/10

Air New Zealand is keep doing great things to make people watch their safety instructions. While they are collecting attention to safety they are positioning their selves as a safe airline company and advertising new aircrafts. This should be the win-win relationship.

After Nothing to Hide and Air New Zealand is Crazy about Rugby concepted Safety Instructions they created their new Safety Instruction as a part of their new marketing campaign.
I wish other companies could create that cool marketing campaigns. Congrats Air New Zealand.


I loved their new character Rico. Rico was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop that is the designer of world's best known puppet characters including Elmo from "Sesame Street," Miss Piggy from "The Muppet Show," We got used to his pronunciation mistakes but this time, in the end of video he reminded me a deaf Turkish movie character Adile Naşit =)

I think your music is too loud
Yes, yes. My parents are very proud =)



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Air NZ is crazy about Rugby and Safety

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Posted on 10/17/10

I'm so badly missing New Zealand. I understand it one more time, after watching the new Air New Zealand campaign about their recently bought Boeing 777-300's. It is very creative... It reminds me the time when I had problem with pronouncing (Beach-Bitch), (Paper-Pepper) or (Horse-Whores). Apparently they will relieve new advertisement videos on the 20th of October. I'm waiting for it.



Yes, Air New Zealand is the most creative airline company that I have ever flew with. Especially their safety instructions...
Almost everybody know about Nothing to Hide concept. I occasionally share this video on my Facebook account. It was the first time that I thought it's not impossible to motivate people to watch safety instructions. While I was checking Air NZ Youtube Page I saw new safety instruction from Air New Zealand.


It's amazing to get All Blacks to act in a Safety Instructions video that shown in the planes.

World Cups are the great opportunities for the companies to use it as a marketing strategy. New Zealand is organizing Rugby World Cup 2011 and it's a big change for the Kiwi companies. Congrats Air New Zealand. It was great..



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Goodbye the Youngest Country on Earth

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Posted on 7/3/10


Last week was full of the mixed feelings. If everything goes right, 4 nights in a row I will be sleeping different cities. After my last night in the MC flat yesterday, today I'm in a backpackers in Auckland. Tomorrow I'll be sleeping in a hotel in Korea and finally, the end of the marathon in my bed again.

I spent my last week with awesome people in Wellington. Thanks to all of them. Yes, I was always doing my lasts in Kiwiland.

I ate my last dinner in Lone Star. It's an amazing Kiwi restaurant. I was always searching for Kiwi food and found it in my last day. Anyway it's good to finish with Kiwi food instead of Asian or Turkish food. Even though I don't really eat pork loved ribs there. Jai and Charles accompanied Jaz and me there. We even celebrate my fake birthday and ate free desert.
Thanks Sri for giving me a Wellington Phoenix scarf. I can add one more part to my scarf collection. Also Sri became a Besiktas fan after I gave a Besiktas jersey to him.
Jaz and I spent most of our time touring around Wellington, trying to do stuff that we always wanted to do or we like. Wake up late, driving without directions, visiting Parliament building, fish and chips by the beach, picnic in Mount Vic ...
I ate my last Burger Fuel with Jaz, Anna and their cousin Jack.
Last time in Wellington airport today. Then, I'm in Auckland now, waiting for my flight tomorrow at 9am.
Thanks everyone who were part of my experience.

Goodbye the youngest country on earth, goodbye beautiful people...



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Last Week in Kiwiland

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Posted on 6/27/10


It's difficult to live last week. I remember when the plane landed Auckland Airport when I arrived New Zealand first. I couldn't believe that it was real. After dreaming years and years I was selected for AIESEC New Zealand Member Committee but I had to wait for my visa more than 6 months.

Yeah, I got visa even it's 3 months late and I was in New Zealand.
There was a lot of things to do....

Now, it's my last week. I'll be heading home to Turkey in less than a week. I'm so excited and don't know if I will be able to see this beautiful country one more time. Yes, I know.. I will come back.

Thanks for everyone who makes my experience awesome in New Zealand.



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Platform 9 - 3/4

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Posted on 6/23/10


Harry Potter is one of the best book series that has ever been published. Beside the books Harry Potter films are the highest grossing film series of all time.
A wizard story Harry Potter made its writer J.K. Rowling the 12th richest woman in the world. If we consider that she started to write Harry Potter in a cafe to not spend electricity, it's one of the biggest success stories in the world.

The Harry Potter series brought a lot of new products inside of its culture. One of them is Platform 9 - 3/4..
As we remember in the first book Harry passed through platform 9 - 3/4 in order to go to Hogwarts with Mrs. Weasley's help. I was always wondering if there is really Platform 9 - 3/4 in any train station.
Wellington Railway Station is hosting Platform 9 - 3/4 as a Dry Cleaner. We can't really go through this platform to get Hogwarts but they can magically clean our clothes.




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Feeding reindeer

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Posted on 6/13/10

It's difficult to play with animals other than some pets as dogs or cats if you live in a big city. For example I haven't seen a donkey since I went to my grandfather's village last time, about 5 years ago.. I haven't even seen a deer in my life. Maybe that's why Staglands is an amazing place to visit for me.

Staglands wild reserve is about 1 hour drive away from Wellington city. It's a huge wildlife park that allows us to interact animals while they are freely roaming around. This park is a good alternative to the zoo as the animals are not behind cage.

It's possible to spend whole day in this beautiful place with peacocks, sheep,donkeys, deer etc.

After we entered Staglands 2 peacocks welcomed us by making us give some them food from the food bags that we bought in the entrance. These peacocks were really friendly and were not worried to eat from our hands. One of them loved us especially. After it followed us for 10 minutes and occasionally kept eating food from our hands it deserved to be named "pety". I'm wondering if it really liked us or if it was just trying to get more food. Anyway, love our paty. When we opened the cage to see native parrots and New Zealand's native birds we had to say bye to pety.


There are huge cages for keeping birds but I didn't feel that cages disturb birds as they can freely fly in it. We like the colourful huge parrots best.



My favourite animals were reindeer and sheep. Especially the most friendly deer who was trying to attack our food bags to eat everything. It was my the first interaction with a deer but we got used to each other really quick with the help of the food bags that we were holding =)

Unfortunately we went to Staglands in a really bad weather. I wish I could go there again when the weather is sunny for a proper picnic. They even provides the BBQ's to cook our food if we want.




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Safety Instructions (Air NZ)

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Posted on 6/9/10

I usually prefer to read the magazines while the cabin crew is demonstrating or showing safety instruction on board but Air New Zealand safety instruction video is worth watching as it's really funny and friendly. I wasn't able to recognise the difference but this video is actually special and really different than other airlines safety instructions. Have a look and try to understand what is special about this video other than Kiwi accent.

They have nothing to hide.



Nothing to hide
If you look at the actors more carefully it's possible to recognise that they don't wear anything. They only have body colour on their body. So, that's how Air New Zealand make its guests watch safety instructions and brand themselves as a creative airline company. Maybe this creativity also help them to be awarded as the best Airline in Australia/Pacific region.



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Bungee Jumping

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Posted on 6/3/10


New Zealand is the best place in the world for the extreme sports. This 100% pure country provides so many different opportunities for people who are crazy about adrenalin. Caving, fly by wire, orienteering, rafting, rock climbing, scuba diving, surfing, swimming with dolphins, trekking, tramping, zorbing(It's an awesome Kiwi invention) and sky diving are just some of the activities can be done in New Zealand. But there is one activity that its name is scary enough for lots of people. It is bungee jumping.

Bungee Jumping, is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure like a platform by the cliff or a bridge or a tower while connected to just an elastic cord. The first modern Bungee jump were made from Clifton Suspension Bridge in Briston, England by Oxford Uni Dangerous Sports Club members. After the first bungee jump, A.J Hacket who is a crazy Kiwi entrepreneur developed super-stretchy elastic cords inspired by land diving which is a ritual in a tiny Pacific island Vanuatu. A.J Hacket demonstrated his invention while he was bungee jumping from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.


This illegal bungee jump wasn't Hacket's last jump. He created the first commercial bungee in Queenstown, New Zealand and has been in the Guinness Records Book with lots of records including the world's first bungee off a building, off a helicopter, highest bungee jump etc.

After the first commercial bungee in Queenstown lots of Bungee Jumping platform opened in New Zealand. One of them is in Taupo. taupobungy.co.nz
As we can see from their website it's a 43m bungee jumping platform over the Waikato River. It allows us to reach up to 70km speed while falling.

I decided to bungee jump in our road trip to Hamilton. The first day took more time than we thought on the way, so we decided to stay in Taupo. It was a quick decision to bungee jump after we saw the discount voucher in the map that we were using for navigation but we had to be there before 11am. We packed up in 10min and reached Taupo Bungy before 11am. More than 1 hour long waiting has started for safety control and lineed up. It wasn't even scary while I was waiting but after the bungee operator put the bungee cord clips to my feet adrenalin started to pump every cells of my blood.

Just 5 seconds before I jumped, I realized how stupid and crazy this decision was. When I looked at the Waikato River, I wanted to say "I want to go back" but I knew that in this case they will just push me. I just remembered what Stephane said. Scream. So, there was nothing to do. 3,2,1 Bungee... Fuck....



This was the most amazing experience of my life. It was totally worth it. I absolutely suggest it.



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Winter in Wellington

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Posted on 5/31/10


When I applied for AIESEC New Zealand Member Committee I thought that New Zealand is a tropical country in the north of Australia, somewhere in Pacific. Apparently I am not really good at geography as I thought Cambodia is in Africa, Sri Lanka in Asia. Hang on, it’s in Asia. I’m confused again.

Anyway when I arrived in New Zealand in the end of August, it was autumn and pretty cold. I was very disappointed as I was expecting the 4 seasons to be sunny and tropical but it was time to face reality. Luckily November, December and January is summer but it's always windy in Wellington. In the southern hemisphere, seasons are exactly opposite of the northern hemisphere and winter has already started in New Zealand. The average temperature is around 10 degrees on May and getting colder.


The biggest problem is not temperature. Istanbul is much colder than Wellington in the winter but New Zealanders haven’t heard about the word “Insulation” in the buildings. It’s very difficult to see a house with double glasses and the worst is there is no central heating system in the houses. It’s usually possible to feel Wellington’s blowing wind inside of the house.

If anyone wants to come to New Zealand choose cities in the North like Auckland or come here in summer while everybody is freezing in northern hemisphere.



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Orca Rescue

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I love how people in New Zealand love nature and everything in nature. It’s hard to understand how someone can ignore peoples lives while someone is trying to save animals.
65 miners had died in the last 3 months in Turkey and our Prime minister declared that; it’s the fate of this occupation. However aerating and early warning systems coast roughly 250.000€. That can reduce accidents by 95%. So, it shouldn’t be fate to invest for labour safety. While we were talking about our miners fate some other people were trying to change fate.

Orcas known as killer whales are one of the whale species that lives in New Zealand. Even though they known as killer whales they are not considered a threat to humans. As they are Besiktas supporters with white spots on their black body they look more sympathetic to me. There is an orca research in Northland, New Zealand that we can visit on http://www.orcaresearch.org

This orca was chasing something, gone to beach and was stranded over there. Fortunately Dr. Ingrid Wisser who is an orca researcher and her team tried to help this orca to meet his family again. Obviously it’s not easy to save a 6 tons whale struggling go back to ocean again but the result is amazing.




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Harbour Capital Marathon

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Harbour Capital Marathon runs through Wellington harbour. It starts in Westpac Stadium of Wellington. Track is fast and flat , scenic route around Wellington’s spectacular waterfront. Marathon will run on June 27th 2010.

When I arrived Wellington that track was the first places that I saw in the scenic route. It’s usually first stop for the new visitors of Wellington. It’s an awesome experience to run in this amazing scenic route of Wellington.

After decided to run half marathon, me and Stephane signed up and started trainings. In spite of bad results in the beginning we still continue practising. If I can run this half marathon I will definitely run 15km in Eurasia Marathon.

http://www.harbourcapital.org.nz/



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Burger Fuel

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Burger Fuel is New Zealand owned fast food restaurants chain. Burger Fuel is unique and special like all the Kiwi brands.Their brand promise is making gourmet burgers. How McDonald's promise us to provide fastest food, Burger King promises customisable burgers Burger Fuel promises us to create ultimate experience in gourmet burgers.

First time, I ate Burger Fuel in Queen Street of Auckland. Since then Burger Fuel is one of the reason that I love New Zealand. It's very difficult to explain a burger experience. So, you better try.

When you enter the store you can see purple theme while smelling unique Burger Fuel atmosphere. After ordering our burgers (My preference is Bambina Combo) they start to prepare. Yes, they are cooking our meal while we are waiting. Maybe that's the reason of this awesome taste.

They are environmentally friendly in addition to their ultimate gourmet burgers. They even looked at potato chip cups made out of potatoes, but potatoes served in potatoes seemed like some sort of weird tuber incest, says their annual report.

Burger Fuel is expending to other countries as well as different cities in New Zealand. Australia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain expansions are also showed as reason of 710.000$.

Maybe, I'm obsess with Burger Fuel but Kiwi made ultimate gourmet burgers made me. Wish to see Burger Fuel all around the world.



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