So Good bye Asia, thank you for the good times and I hope we meet again soon. North Vietnam was great, lovely people, stunning countryside. After five months of doing things my way, I decided to go all out package tours, visited Halong bay, nice for about ten minutes, then three days trekking in Sapa up by the Chinese boarder. Of all the countries I wish I could have stayed there longer, but duty called and surf is up NZ style. Arriving here was a bit of a shock to the old system; seemed very similar to the UK I left behind, subtle differences, but none the less enough to make the last six months a very sweet dream. A very jet lagged Barnaldo was awaiting my arrival and we spent the afternoon entertaining ourselves with a bottle of duty free in the park, followed by obligatory press up and chin up contests, a theme that I am sure will continue over the next few months. Day two: get on the case-After going to bed at 9!!! and awakening at 5.30 (Barney had an excuse, what with the 12 hour time difference, but I put my lethargy down to being totally lame), we decided to get ourselves kitted out for the much anticipated surf/road trip. 5 hours and several hundred dollars later we were set to go on two sweet boards, working a double team effort on the sales assistant-Barney technical and questions man and my bargaining know-how put us in good stead. Christchurch had served its purpose and it was time to roll out. Not as easy as it would seem, the bus drivers had a problem with our boards, re-enforcing the need for our wheels. So spend three nights with Holster and his lovely landlords, bought the car (I know I can't drive but surely it will encourage me to learn), plenty of camping gear and the final pennies on thermals and waterproofs. Bring on the great outdoors. Only missing a one Dr. Turnbull, thanks to the NHS holiday scheme he was unable to join us, but we'll save a wave for next time buddy.