Greetings everybody, and welcome to my first postcard of my world travels!

I have made it safely to BIG New Zealand, and I have been up to many weird and wonderful things already, as you will soon read about, and see also if you look at my photo albums!

So, in the beginning there was Jersey airport. I left at 10.50am on Thursday 9th November and headed for Gatwick airport, where I next shuttled up to Heathrow. I spent nine and a half hours waiting for my next flight that would take me to Hong Kong!

I got very bored at that point and proceeded to call many of you in order to keep me sane!

Anyway, I finally boarded my flight at Heathrow and embarked on a twelve hour flight to Hong Kong. In flight I was gifted with my own plasma screen and full accompaniment of movie channels, all of which I watched several times each… gee I love long haul flights! One excellent thing about the flight was when I flew over the Himalayas just after dawn, which was an eye opener!

Next I arrived in Hong Kong International airport. There I had to wait a few hours for my next flight to NZ, so I spent the time shopping and sampling the local cuisine. I ate at a nice little restaurant called ‘Fook Ming Tong’, and I tried a ‘Pork, Rice cake, Noodle in Green Tea’ dish, which was quite interesting.

My eleven hour flight to NZ was rather slow and uncomfortable as it wasn’t a 747 but an airbus! Anyway it got me to NZ in the end.

So I arrived in Auckland and my passport was stamped for up to a six month visit. I caught an airbus coach to Auckland city and arrived at the ‘Base Backpackers’ hostel, where I was booked to stay the night. The rest of that day was spent trying to acclimatize to the time difference and get over the sudden head cold I had seemed to have caught from the conditioned air of my flights!!!

The next day I hopped on a bus and took a three hour trip up north to Whangarei, to meet Adam and Jo. Meeting up with friends was like a life line for me at that point as my cold had gotten worse and I felt jet lagged to hell!

Anyway, we went shopping for some last minute clothes and I bought a pair of shorts, some three quarter length trousers, a vest, and a pair of sandals- oh and a much needed cup of coffee!

After that we arrived at Jo’s parents, Ian and Marie, home. I grabbed a shower and prepared for an afternoon of fun, and an evening of hunting.

Later that day, Adam and I met up with a guy called ‘Mesa’, a shearer/farmer/hunter/tour guide/ really cool guy! We assisted Mesa and a team of Alpaca owners in shearing a herd of Alpacas, which was an amazing experience. (Photos of which can be found in the photo album section of the site).

Later that night Adam and I joined Mesa and his wife Debbie for dinner which consisted of a large meat platter, very nice! After that Mesa took us possum hunting in the dark. Now before anyone gets upset about us mercilessly shooting possums, I should note that in New Zealand they are viewed as the rats of the trees as they eat all the young growth and destroy crops! So anyway, we had two 2.2 rifles and a large flashlight. The aim is that you use the light to find the reflections of their eyes in the trees, at which point they freeze, and then you put a round straight through their eyes!!

This venture proved quite successful and we put quite a few out of their misery before the night was out.

The next day we headed to a 4x4 off road training site. There we spend the whole day with our tutor ‘Colin’, whom instructed us in the correct way of using 4x4 vehicles in all off road and dangerous situations. This was a very enjoyable day and not only did I learn advanced 4x4 driving, but also how to drive automatic transmission vehicles. At the end of the day we each received our certificates for completing the course and we headed back home.

Today Adam, Marie and I drove out to Oakura to go on a charter fishing trip. The sea was rather choppy and we weren’t very successful, although I did catch a rare Frost Fish! After that we headed back home where Adam and I proceeded to shoot the severed fish heads with air rifles, hehe! Videos of this may one day grace the net, but not on this site!

This evening we enjoyed a wonderful roast lamb dinner and I have repacked my bags ready for my first trip on my ‘Kiwi Experience’ tour tomorrow.

So that’s about it for now. I am well and enjoying myself. Missing you all but getting by.

Until next time, so long.

John.