I've wanted to write for a bit about our perspective of living in a foreign country. New Zealand is like Britain in a lot of ways but living somewhere day to day you get to spot the differences, even if they are really small. Anyway, as "part one" of a short series, I'd thought I'd start with the obvious: 1. Kiwis love their cars Auckland is build around the car, and the traffic jams in the rush hour get pretty bad (although nothing like what I've seen in London) the public transport here isn't that bad - both Helen and I walk or take the bus to work - but getting around by car is a hell of a lot easier most of the time - especially in the evenings or at weekends. New Zealand's energy use per head is one of the highest in the world - but then given that just an hour out of Auckland we can be on a beautiful beach, climbing a mountain or on a deserted island, I'm not all that surprised. Having said that, I managed to live in London for six years without a car, but if I'd lived anywhere else in the UK, I'm not sure that would have been the case.

Well after two and a half months of being a dole-ite (without the dole) I landed myself a job at a brewery! Free beer, which can't be bad - and it seems like a great company to work for, with a load of friendly people. I'm in a role which is a lot more database / sql focused than I'm used to - but the work itself is technically reasonably easy enough.

Even though it's starting to get cold (It's well into autumn here) we are still enjoying the great Kiwi outdoors - perhaps even more than earlier in the year. I got myself some proper tramping (hiking) boots a month or so ago and Helen had her Mum bring her boots half way around the world when she came to visit. :-) Helen's boots still had mud on the soles from the last time she cleaned them (I think this was when she was a teenager!) and customs here at Auckland airport insisted on steam-cleaning them before they could be brought into the country We went to Great Barrier Island for Easter with Mark, Nicola and Steve. It was quite a change from the big smoke here in Auckland - there is no mains electricity or water - people survive on generators, solar panels, rainwater and the hot springs. It was pretty rustic and sparse, perhaps a good introduction for to what to expect in the South Island. We managed to get a couple of tramps in there, climbling the two highest mountains on the island. This weekend we spent in Thames, which is in the Coromandel, to the east of Auckland. We did another big hike on the Saturday into the Coromandel Forest Park and then took the scenic drive back today, stopping at Duder Regional park for lunch.