The Star: June 06, 2019

The Star Thursday June 6 2019
16
OUR PEOPLE – AXEL WILKE
The Axel that keeps Chch moving
FUTURE: Axel Wilke became a transport engineer to
save himself from going “crazy” working at his parents
supermarket in Germany. PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
With a name like Axel Wilke, it was only natural the transport consultant’s career would
involve cars, bikes, buses, scooters and skateboards. He speaks to Julia Evans about his
midlife crisis at 24-years-old and the time he royally messed up an intersection
How did you get into the
transport field?
I had my midlife crisis when
I was 24. What happened to
me, I was running my parents
supermarket and had been
doing that for a few years and I
was just absolutely bored. I was
not doing anything with my
brain and I was so frustrated.
It was actually quite funny. We
belonged to a chain, half of the
people running supermarkets
were owner/operators, and every
couple of weeks, 300 of us from
the northern region would come
together and spend an afternoon
together. What I wasn’t quite
sure about was whether you had
to be crazy in order to do this
job long-term or whether doing
this job long-term turned you
crazy. Either way, I didn’t want to
find out. So what I did with my
midlife crisis is I decided I needed
to study something and so one
of my really core interests was
sustainable transport. I was mad
in that area, so I thought, why
don’t I just study that? I asked
around and I was told you have
to become a civil engineer for
that. I thought how strange, but
never mind, so I became a civil
engineer. I was halfway through
my degree when my girlfriend
said she was going to move back
to New Zealand. She was a Kiwi.
She’s not in the picture any longer.
Anyway I was halfway through
my degree and I visited her here
over Christmas and checked out
the universities. At Canterbury,
they said I could finish my degree
here, not a problem. I graduated
from Canterbury in 1997. A few
years later I went back and did my
masters at Canterbury.
But you never finished your
PhD?
When I finished my masters,
my lecturer tried really hard to
talk me into carrying on with
a PhD and I said “yeah, nah.”
After uni I started my first job at
Christchurch City Council and I
was there for eight years. While I
was doing my masters, I was parttime
at the city council still and
went back full-time afterwards.
I absolutely loved my job and
I couldn’t see taking another
three or four years out to study
something full-time. I thought
there’s more fun to be had by
actually getting my hands dirty
and doing stuff.
Did your love of transport
start as a child?
In terms of what I played with
as a kid, it was Lego. I loved going
to my grandparents. They had a
bed seat, you put the seat up and
underneath there was a big box
of Lego. I played with it for hours,
that was the engineer in me. But I
guess I’ve been into cycling since
I started just getting from A to
B when I was five like any kid. I
biked to school 2.5km when I was
in primary school.
Where in Germany are you
from?
I’m from the north-west – the
biggest big city is Hanover. That’s
where I was actually living for a
few years, once as a kid and once
as a young adult. The rest of the
time I was living in a tiny village
of less than 3000 people called
Exter.
So you came to Christchurch
following love?
Yes, then I fell in love with
Christchurch. I ditched my
girlfriend – that didn’t really last
that long. Never mind, but the
other love has endured. I came
here and that was it. All of the
rest of my family lives nicely
in Germany, just in one spot
actually. All close together.
But you’re married now?
I am. She’s a Kiwi. How we met
is a funny story all right. We went
tramping in about 1999/2000
and tramped around Mt Fyffe in
Kaikoura. •Turn to page 18
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