CURRENT MISSION

Survive the winter and make it back to New Zealand.

ABOUT ME

I was born and raised in the South Island of New Zealand, which is getting pretty close to Antarctica. I love adventures. I love meeting new people, exploring new places and discovering new perspectives.

I work on a software project called loomio.org, which is all about bringing democracy back into everyday life by making it easy for people to participate in decisions that affect them. I work with my favourite people in the world, and get to meet people all over the world interested in the intersection between technology and politics :)

I play in a band called The All Seeing Hand, which you can listen to here: http://the-all-seeing-hand.bandcamp.com/

I love cooking, almost as much as I love eating. Pretty much anything that's not animals, I will enjoy eating it. I love gardening. I'm really interested in permaculture and learning how to live in ways that are both fun and at the same time unlikely to destroy the world/galaxy/universe.

PHILOSOPHY

I want as much freedom as can be possible without disadvantaging other people, animals, the world. And I want to help other people do the same. And I want it now!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

When I'm in New Zealand I get to have lovely people come and stay in my lounge, and when I'm outside of New Zealand I get to stay in other lovely peoples' lounges :)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Stayed with people all over the UK, in Texas, met a few in Colorado, stayed and traveled with some people in Slovenia, hung out with lots of lovely people through couchsurfing in Romania. Hosted a bunch of people in Dunedin and Wellington in New Zealand.

Interests

Music - discovering, listening, seeing bands, playing in bands, touring with bands. Books. Traveling. Philosophy. Meeting. Talking. Drinking, everything, more than is good for my organs. Riding bikes. Eating exotic fruits I have never even imagined before. Buckfast. Chimpanzees. Bonobos. Humanzee. Megafauna (especiallly giant sloths). Facts of the day. Climbing trees. Swimming at stupid times of night. Sleeping upright. Chips. Learning the most offensive slang in any locality. Deep-frying things. Bramboračky. Naked mole-rats. Slivovice. Star-nosed moles. Fake meat. Giant Japanese salamanders. Discovering the cheapest alcohol in any situation. Volcanos.

• animals
• books
• cooking
• drinking
• gardening
• politics
• technology
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• camping
• rock climbing
• swimming
• business
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: anything by Kurt Vonnegut, E.L Doctrow , Ursula LeGuinn, Heather Marsh, Jared Diamond, E.F. Schumacher, Noam Chomsky, Aldous Huxley, Peter Singer, Will Self, Emma Goldman, Petr Kropotkin, George Orwell, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burrows etc etc etc.

Music: much too much to list by band, but I listen to a lot of instrumental surf rock, old socialist folk music (Woody Guthrie warms the huge cockle in my heart),a bunch of 60's reggae and first-wave ska, delta blues, ragtime and bluegrass, Ethiopian jazz, I love a lot of early hardcore and political punkrock, and I always seem to end up playing drums in fast raw punk bands. I love everything from Mississippi John Hurt to Bad Brains, from the Germs to Billy Bragg.

I really like most of Jim Jarmusch's films, every Cohen brothers movie I've seen has been excellent, I liked Waking Life a lot, I saw Brazil recently and it was unexpectedly amazing, I very much enjoy nature and political documentaries, recently saw the Power of Community and Manufacturing Consent, both of which were excellent), and I love any movie with Hulk Hogan in it, especially Santa With Muscles.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

In Guatemala I saw a volcano erupting in the distance while I was camping the night on top of another volcano. Pachanga!

When I was a lot younger in Kenya I saw a baby baboon called Otto climb up my onto my brother's head and pull out huge clumps of his hair, with both his hands and his feet. It shouldn't be funny but it was.

Climbed one of the tallest peaks in New Zealand and drank half a bottle of whisky at the top to celebrate. And had a very good time getting back down.

Teach, Learn, Share

If you have a drum kit I might be able to teach you how to play it. I can teach you some stuff about your brain and the fancy business going on inside of it. I can teach you all about local New Zealand and Australian punk bands, and expose you to the finest South Auckland gangsta rap ever produced! I can teach you New Zealand and Australian slang, none of which makes any sense at all. I can teach you about how to not get your arms ripped off by chimpanzees while you're trying to teach them things.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cook Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Czech Republic, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

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