My name is Michael Zinreich and I am a German born in the middle of the golden 80ies of the last century, that also marked the end of a quite exciting millennium according to historians.
After I’ve graduated in Computer Science in 2009 I felt the urge to leave the office behind and go traveling this world instead, I read so much about on the Internet. So I quit my job at the German Webhoster 1&1 and Internet portal Web.de to see what’s going on out there.
Of all these places in the world I’ve chosen New Zealand to be my new home base, which is probably because sailing is just a second nature to people down there and something I really fell in love with. Even so much that I went on a circumnavigation of New Zealand that took me over 5 months on a leaky wooden boat built by two crazy Kiwis and turned out to be a live changing experience.
I felt like being beyond all barriers and that nothing could stop me conquering the world or becoming what ever I want. Maybe a sailor or a brewer master (2nd attempt).
However, once I’ve put all the dreams of becoming a sailing master brewer aside, somehow I got back into the programming business, which was not 100% intentional but certainly a really good decision.
Writing software in New Zealand felt like a restart that enabled me to regain that writing code was once my big passion and still is.
So now here I am at the end of the world writing code for a French Company.
One day I will go traveling again and that time programming will go with me, to write the code that makes the world go round.
*** Update May 2012 ***
After roughly two years programming I’m dragged out into the wild again. So I quit the job I loved and decided to go sailing – again. This time I’m crewing aboard a 70 ft. Ketch for an ocean passage of a lifetime. From New Zealand we will sail to Fiji, Tonga and to Tahiti eventually. Let’s see what adventures are about to come.
*** Update July 2016 ***
More than 4 years have passed since my last update to this page. I have neglected this page a lot and I will not revive it heavily in the near future. But I might find myself sometimes wanting to write about stuff. There would be enough to say, as the last 4 years have been as exciting as ever. I had episodes in Germany, South America, South East Asia. My current location is Switzerland where I battle the greatest IT project of my life so far.
There will be more travels in the future, including one very special journey that goes beyond the boundaries of countries. So stay tuned.
*** Update January 2017 ***
While I’m still based in Switzerland, I was able to join into a business opportunity that isn’t just very exciting in itself, but it allows me to combine work and traveling a lot. So instead of just being based in one place I get to see many exciting cities all across Europe. So far it has rekindled a somewhat lost love in France and the french part of Switzerland. It’s exciting, exhausting and exactly what i need in my life right now. Unfortunately it doesn’t leave me much time for writing.
About Elchzone.de
The idea of the Elchzone existed for many years and was used to gain basic knowledge about web and graphic design when I was a teenager. But then the project fell asleep for a long time, which I revived in 2008 as a little blog about everything and nothing. Just as my own little place to fool around.
When I started traveling in 2009 this website gained a little bit more of a meaning as I started to share stories about my journey and a little bit of photography. However, it remained a little website that is nothing more than a side project that helps me to evolve my skills in writing English, photography and blogging.
I will show it to my grandchildren one day, so they can see what their old man was like, when he was offline.