Kia ora,

Well, I made it into New Zealand but not without a bit of drama along the way. Upon checking into my flight from LA to Auckland I was informed I would not be allowed to get on the plane as I did not have a flight out of New Zealand or a visa to stay in the country. In hindsight this is something I probably should have looked into before getting to the airport, lesson learnt! I was marched up to the Air New Zealand office and overlooked as I booked the cheapest flight I could find to Australia in January whilst praying that my credit card would not be declined (I'm still hoping I can cancel my flight and get my money back).

After a brief 12 hour flight I arrived at Auckland where a couple of my mates were waiting to pick me up and take me to the pub. You can't beat a nice pint to wake you up at 8am. It was brilliant to see everyone again, we had a BBQ and a few more beers and reminisced about old times (all of 3 years ago).

The next day we went on a fishing trip, enjoying more beers at 6.30am and managed to catch loads of snapper. I don't like to blow my own horn but I feel you should know I caught the biggest fish of the day!

I've been staying with some friends on the west coast for the last couple of weeks helping build their extension and entertaining their kids (or they have been entertaining me) and have just moved back into my old house in Auckland this weekend to help with renovations.

I'm afraid that's about as exciting as my life gets at the moment, it pretty much consists of job applications, interviews and endless visa application forms. It's almost as if they don't want me to become a New Zealand resident!? At the moment it looks as if I might be moving down to Christchurch on the south island, rebuilding the roads after the Earthquake they had earlier this year but I have my fingers in a few different pies, I'll keep you in the loop.

I hope everything is good back where you are and it's not too cold, I'll be thinking of you whilst a sit in the sun having a beer. I'm also keeping an eye on the letter box as I'm expecting the flood of Christmas cards to arrive any day now.....

Gibb