My background

I'm a first generation New Zealander of Austrian descent. My family came to New Zealand in 1955 after 8 years of Nazi rule and 10 years of Soviet occupation in Austria. I'm still very closely connected to my family background through family, language and culture. I am a dual New Zealand Austrian citizen and I can enjoy all the rich heritage of my family background while still being proud to be a Kiwi.

This is the national anthem of Austria. It's played here together with images of the Austrian flag. The words of the anthem are in German, which is the official language of Austria, although most Austrians speak the dialect of their own province. My parents spoke the Viennese dialect, which is very different to standard German.

I grew up in Christchurch and went to my local secondary school, which was Cashmere High School. In those days, school was much stricter. Boys could get the cane for being seen with their socks down. Cashmere High was a very modern and progressive school in its curriculum for its time, and had a great reputation for foreign languages. I was fortunate that in my senior high school years, I was able to study French, German and Russian. I went on to study all three of these languages at the University of Canterbury. I was a first year student at the huge new Arts campus at Ilam.