Small village living

Lubosˇ Tomsˇovsky´, 27, from Beach Haven is a PhD student at AUT at the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences

How long have you lived here and where are you from?

I’ve been living here for 6 months now. I come from a very tiny village (about 300 inhabitants) situated in the Czech Republic.

Describe your neighbourhood.

It reminds me of a slightly bigger village. It is a very peaceful and calm place, without any excessive noise and with family houses side by side. It is full of green and open spaces. It really reminds me of my wonderful time back at my home.

What is the earliest memory of the Shore? When I arrived after 26-hour flight from Europe. The city was covered with fog and it was raining all day. I forgot to get off the bus at my stop, because there was no bus stop announcement, which is not usual in Europe, and I got lost. But at least I was welcome by the proper New Zealand winter and finally found my way home, totally wet.

What is your favourite North Shore beach and why?

It is very hard to pick just one and it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of them. So any of them is my favourite, because there is no ocean or sea in the Czech Republic and I enjoy being at any of them and having a swim or just going for a walk.

What do you like least about the shore and how can we fix it?

I will not be probably very original, but I would say the traffic. I think it is a shame for the whole city that there is no proper public transport infrastructure. That forces people to prefer using

‘‘It really reminds me of my wonderful time back at my home.’’

Lubosˇ Tomsˇovsky´

cars in the city, which is worse for the air pollution and higher levels of stress.

Where is the best place to have a meal?

To be honest, I prefer preparing my own meals to know what I eat. But once a week I go to Curry Sutra in Beach Haven. The service crew is so friendly, pleasant and nice. One of the service crew is learning Czech, which is admirable and amazing and he is very good actually.