I had an 'aha' moment as a teenager when my great uncle Charlie's brother-in-law, Alec Wallace, told me stories about my great grandparents Theresia and Carl Alve in a way that made their lives come alive. I never knew my tupuna, but the influence of that conversation has driven me to make exploring my family's genealogy and history a life-long quest.
In 1994 I wrote, Alve Road: How do you spell that? which chronicled what I knew of the history of the Alve family in Germany and, the better-known history of the family in New Zealand. As part of this work, I wrote over 120 brief biographies of the first four generations of the family, beginning with my forbears Carl Wilhelm and Maria Theresia Alve who emigrated from Germany to New Zealand in 1875-76. 
My writing and presentation skills have been enhanced through my work as a website designer and developer. I am also a self-taught genealogist and family history researcher. I use a variety of internet resources to further this work, including the MyHeritage online genealogy platform and the www.alve.nz website.
I married Margaret Milne, from Upper Riccarton and together we have four adult children and nine mokopuna (grandchildren). Margaret and I reside in Tawa, Wellington where we have lived since 1994. I pound the streets and bush tracks of Tawa and Wellington with our miniature Schnauzer dog Pippin who always looks forward with enthusiasm to the next day's walk. Occasionally, I go bush and lodge in a hut in the southern North Island mountains and hills.