I cant believe its not better

Well, that’s it, I quit.

Again.

Not a job this time, just the effort of trying to get things sorted. We’re going to head on up to Nelson and around the north part of the island for a few days before we (that is to say, I) need to start work again. Will I know what to do still ? Can I still even type ? I have no idea, but am quite looking forward to it, for the first time in a long time.

We have decided to spend the next five days in the confined space of a camper van and rough it for a bit. Well, it won’t really be that rough of course because we’re both a bit soft, but we will be down to just one bathroom. There will be a microwave in there for some reason, even though the fridge is not big enough to hold more than a couple of bottles of beer and who wants them microwaved ?

I’ll have to sort out a suitable playlist on the iPod that catches the mood of the open road, blue skies and an optimistic feeling in my water. Something by Morrisey or Joy Division perhaps. Oh how I miss the jaunty ditties of my time wasted in Manchester as and undergraduate alcoholic. “Oh Manchester, so much to answer for”, as one of your more famous sons once scribed (it was Morrisey if you have not guessed).

Maybe a bit of John Denver. “Sunshine on my shoulders” perhaps … though if he had lived in New Zealand rather than Colorado, he may have written “Sunshine on my shoulders, bastard hot, giving me skin cancer” and that was never going to be a big seller.

We’re quite looking forward to a bit of posh camping; it should stand us in good stead when Paul starts talking about the great outdoors in Scotland and we can at least recognise some of the things that he’s talking about – we should be able to see some of them from the van I expect.

If Nelson is as beautiful as is has been described, then we should be able to get some more photos up when we get back. I have heard Nelson described as “a long and beautiful expanse, thrust out from the middle, where few men have been seen and the most frequently spotted mammal is a sheep”. Hang on, that might have been Nelson’s wife talking about something completely different.

I won’t do the joke with “Belsen” as the punch line …

Better go before the wine starts to take effect. Or the wife starts to take the wine. Or the wife’s whine starts to take effect.

Ah, finally, we have some pictures to show.

We also have a new iMac, place to live, three year visa and have started to compose plans to build our own home.

The pics can be found here but there’s a wee teaser below:

Bulky and going white up top, in front of a mountain.

More soon …

Everybody knows back in the UK that the real people live in the North and that the South is full of “Walter the softy” types. There’s also the fact that the scenery is much better up North but all the bloody jobs are down South. The strange thing is that it seems to be true here too, except that it’s all upside down.

So we have opted for setting up shop down in the South, amongst the real people of New Zealand (if the truth be known, even the softies from up North were amiable). The city of choice is Christchurch and if all goes well I should be bringing home the bacon before the end of November.

We have spent the last week in the South island having breezed in from Auckland and the scenery is stunning. Kaikora and Akoroa stand out as places we expect to visit often once we’re settled.

Akoroa is surprisingly nice because it was taken from the French by the British, but unlike Chamonix, it seems to have retained all it’s loveliness. Also, I don’t remember many dolphins around Chamonix, but then again, it was winter the last time I visited.

We have missed the ski season over here by a couple of weeks, but next season we should be able to drive to 11 different areas, meaning that the season will be pretty much over before we get banned from the whole lot. Somebody told me that “it’s not like skiing in Europe”, so the news just gets better all the time.

So far we’ve not had much home sickness, but that may come. We are missing family and friends of course but the only other thing is the goals in the premiership, but since Liverpool have not actually scored any, we’re not missing much.

I’ll be signing my contract tomorrow for a real job … could be interesting.

Hmmm, that didn’t last long, eh ?

I spent almost eight years shuffling bits of paper in Brussels, but have not even managed two weeks in Auckland. The big question would have to be “what’s wrong with Auckland ?” and I’d struggle to answer anything other than it’s flat. But then again, so was pretty much all of Belgium …

Auckland is a great city. It’s clean, safe, warm, very friendly and has plenty to offer in terms of entertainment, food etc. It even has a nice waterfront and clean water, just like Liverpool (in the 1700s). The problem was that the job was in the north, the scenery was to the south of Auckland and that’s just too far to commute. So, we’re off again.

We’re heading towards Wellington and then on to the South Island. While we’re down there, we’re gonna catch up with Martin and Padraig, who are heading off on a little adventure of their own. Let’s hope it’s a little less eventful than the last leg of Martin’s travels where he managed to lose his passport.

I narrowly missed the chance to get the old barnet cut, so will travel south in full boufant glory.

Till soon …

I feel like I’ve been hit for six today. It’s my last day in the current working position (close to horizonal) and last night was the sixth farewell drink / meal and I’m getting too old for this.

So, after two “holidays” in Belgium covering almost eight years, I’m moving on to pastures new on the other side of the world. It’s the end of an era, or the end of an error, depending on your point of view I guess.

Once I have sobered up and rested my poor aching brain, I will get some proper updates done. Honest.