Hi!

Rather than bore everyone to death with endless Facebook statuses, or having to send a million identical postcards, I’ve decided to write a bit of a blog about my time in New Zealand, and bore everyone with that instead (although I can’t promise that some of you won’t see the odd Facebook status or get a postcard)!

What’s happened so far...
- Spent a month planning my trip rather than revising for exams
- Spent a full day trying to figure out how to fit clothes for a month, ski and mountaineering gear and work experience stuff into one suitcase and a 30kg weight limit
- Was waved off from Birmingham by Mum and Dad, literally so excited I could hardly string a sentence together, let alone pull my mahoosive wheelie bag or negotiate stairs/customs in my mountaineering boots
- Sat on an 8 hour flight to Dubai, on which I ate a lot of food (love airplane food) and watched some films
- Found Caroline in Dubai Airport - she had flown from Newcastle
- Sat on a 14 hour flight - more food and films, and trying to fall asleep against the window (not the good looking foreigner sitting next to me). The Airbus was pretty cool!
- Got off the plane in Sydney - long queues - apparently we were lucky not to have been delayed due to volcanic activity - not just a European problem then...
- Another flight, only 4 hours this time, Airbus was empty so Caroline and I took a row each and had more food then a nice kip!
- Left the airport, realising it was about 20 degrees in Auckland - shall I send some silaging weather back to the UK
- Picked up the campervan! Freddy is his name - painted and named after Fat Freddys, an iconic New Zealand band. I checked them out - pretty good music actually - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJg63SziL4
- Drove to Morrinsville to drop Caroline off with friends of friends where she is staying to see practice. Even though it was only 5, it was feeling pretty late due to time zones and the fact that it was dark and the roads emptied, so I stayed with Caroline for the night - thanks for your hospitality Heather
- Quick trip into Hamilton for all the things we hadn’t managed to pack into our suitcases. I’m going to have to curb my souvenir addiction or dump a lot of stuff! We spoke to an old gentleman in a lift in the shopping centre - he was bemused to hear we were only visiting because apparently ‘living in New Zealand is bloody brilliant’ - not sure you’d hear a lot of Brits saying the same about their country to random tourists!
- I left Caroline in Morrinsville, then headed off with Freddy the van up to Ohope Beach to camp. I had to force myself to keep my eye on the road at several occasions - once being when I saw some Pukeko - cool birds that I’d read about in a guidebook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukeko
- I then arrived at the campsite, it’s off season so very quiet and so they don’t designate pitches. As a result, I’m just off the beach and have been in prime position to watch the sunset - brilliant!

This is turning into a bit of an essay (you can tell I’m very excited about the whole thing), will try and keep things short and sweet from now on. Tomorrow I start seeing practice - keen as a bean!

Will leave you with this - it’s a quote by Jean Batten, a famous female pilot from New Zealand in the 30’s and is painted on the wall in Auckland airport;
'Every flyer who ventures across oceans to distant lands is a potential explorer; in his or her breast burns the same fire that urged adventurers of old to set forth in their sailing-ships for foreign lands'