FROM ATHENS TO PAPAKURA PDF Download

Author: NIKOS PETOUSIS
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1465306234
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This book tells the story of a Greek boy, Nikos Petousis, born in 1936 in Athens, Greece, his subsequent journey to New Zealand as a teenager and his successful life here. Nikos lived through both WW2 then the Greek Civil War in his hometown. He endured bombing – seeing parts of bodies spread out in front of him, hunger – looking for food in the gutter, cold - walking barefoot through the snow, and poverty – five adults living in one room, throughout that period. Despite all that he managed to do well academically, gained a place at an engineering school and graduated at the age of19. By coincidence, a New Zealand soldier from Papakura, Ernie Clark, had fought in Greece during WW2, got left behind when the New Zealand forces withdrew and was then sheltered from the Germans by a Greek family in the Peloponnese. The family who sheltered Ernie Clark happened to be relations of Nikos’s uncle. Nikos could see no future for himself in Greece, so decided to leave Greece and Ernie offered to sponsor him in New Zealand. As the story unfolds it covers the preparations, trip to New Zealand, settling, ups and downs and faux pas. Nikos started the New Zealand Greek Society, helping other Greeks who had come to New Zealand and fostering friendship between the two nationalities. Nikos later set up his own engineering firm fabricating machinery he had designed and he started exporting machinery He travelled extensively through Europe, both East and West, Asia and the United States in his drive to win exports for New Zealand. When he retired he accepted the position of Honorary Consul for Greece in Auckland and has continued to foster relationships between the two countries. A particularly exciting event he arranged was the farewell to the New Zealand Olympians before the team set off for the Greek Olympic Games. At times the story is gut-wrenching but it leaves one with a happy feeling for a successful life.