Enjoy

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After a few coffees my morning face disappeared and my first impressions of Yangon were positive. Whilst it is a completely different world from Bangkok and let’s be honest there is nowhere like Bangkok, it wasn’t like I had gone back in time fifty years either like some people had reported. Also, in terms of a culture shock it was certainly no Varanasi or Delhi. It’s worth noting however that Yangon is the capital city so I may change my mind as time goes by.

My first task was to locate a pharmacy, I had cracked a rib the week previously whilst skiing and carrying a 20 kg backpack had really started to take its toll. I located a pharmacy in my Lonely Planet and jumped in a taxi into the city centre in search of some much needed pain killers. In true Asian style I was dropped off nowhere near the pharmacy and spent a good hour trying to get my bearings. A little frustrating at first but all part of the fun. I learnt a long time ago that there is no point getting annoyed at situations like this when you are in a foreign land. It was there I found out two problems with the Lonely Planet’s guide to Burma. First, it’s five years old, so the pharmacy I was looking for was no longer there. Second, it’s not waterproof!

I discovered when it rains in Burma, it really rains here and I risked having my Lonely Planet being turned into soggy paper just by taking it out of my bag, so my first purchase in Yangon was a very stylish Pokemon umbrella at a nearby store. Throughout the day people then stopped me to tell me it was a children’s umbrella and two members of the hostel staff even told me later they had seen me walking around town with a children’s umbrella. I failed to check the next days paper but I am sure there was an article in there about a foreign man and his children’s umbrella. I found a chemist after wandering around for a while. When I thanked my chemist for getting me the right drugs she told me that the pleasure was the warmth in her heart that she felt helping me. You don’t get that at Boots!

I went on a little walking trip around the city centre taking in the town hall and an impressive Baptist church and the impressive High Court building. You don’t have to be told that Burma once came under British rule as there are colonial style buildings everywhere as well as the terribly British style grid system. There are also lots of Victorian factory style warehouse type buildings all around the city which are all closed and as I stood staring at these crumbly old building as the rain came down I was starting to think: a) is this Manchester? and b) maybe the Thai beaches were not such a bad idea after all.

As the rain come down hard again I nipped into The Strand Hotel, Burma’s only five star hotel for a spot of lunch. Whilst staying here is out of my, and pretty much everyone else’s price range, the restaurant prices are not too high and it turns out they have free Wi-Fi. I know it’s not very back-packerish but I am about to become a poor student living on rice and noodles so forgive me for treating myself to a two dollar coffee in a five star hotel. I reckon I may be the only guy to have ever walked into a five star hotel with a pokemon umbrella. The doorman acted like a pro and gave my umbrella the royal treatment it deserved. If you are ever in Yangon as a backpacker or not I recommend you have lunch or tea here.

I walked around the city centre aimlessly getting lost. I love nothing more than going to a new city and just walking with no purpose. As long as I didn’t lose my card with the hotel’s address on it I knew I would be fine. I learnt that although they have sidewalks here they are normally clogged with market and food vendors so people just walk down the road without a care in the world. I quite enjoyed that. There are lots of cars here but they never get up to any decent speed to worry about getting knocked down. Ordinary citizens are not allowed to own motor bikes in Yangon. They are reserved only for the military but apparently you are allowed to own a bike outside the city. I wonder where the cut-off point is?

I walked around for about four hours without a care in the world. I never saw one single Westerner in that entire time which is a strange feeling that I haven’t had since my first ever trip to pre-Olympics Beijing in 2004. People will stare at you but not in a threatening way and a friendly smile is always replicated when eye contact is made. This is the safest I have ever felt walking around an city in South East Asia which is really saying something and it appeared to me the only immediate danger I found myself in was tripping on high curbs and falling into puddles hiding large pot-holes, which is something I found everywhere in Myanmar.

At night I walked around Bogyoke Aung San Market which apparently has the country’s best selection of handicrafts and souvenirs. Yangon is not the shopping Mecca that Bangkok is. What I did not expect was such a selection of food here, From street food, to cheap Burmese and Indian eateries to a whole host of Asian options as well as European places, I was spoilt for choice, something that later proved to be true in the rest of Burma as well. I ended up choosing an Indian place and ordered a Talhi and then spotted the Masala Dosa on someone else’s table so changed my mind. They both ended up on the table. I didn’t complain.

I stayed at Motherland Inn 2 during my stay here. It was a recommendation from friends and one I am very grateful for. The rooms were clean and quite simple which is all you want from a budget option. But they also run a complimentary airport shuttle, store your bags for you if you want to drop some luggage whilst travelling around the country, book all transport for you and provide a continental style buffet breakfast that really was worth getting up for. All for the cost of $10 dollars a night. Highly recommended!

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No matter be it first thing in the morning or arriving at 4am after an epic 15 hour bus journey from Laos you will always find at least one street vendor rolling around their mobile kitchen serving up delicious Pad Thai. I am a keen chef and wanted a video of my vendor making it so I can re-create the magic when I get home.

It’s quick, easy, yummy and very cheap. A veggie Pad Thai will set you back a mere 30 baht which is roughly around 60 pence. I could and did eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner washed down with many of the delicious fruit shakes that are available around Khoa San Road or if you fancy a large bucket of alcohol. Either way Pad Thai goes with everything.

Here is the finished product.

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It’s became quite apparent that 99.9% of the people who read my blog have never met me so a brief history lesson is required.  Almost four years ago now I made my first ever solo backpacking trip to Australia on a working holiday visa.  Five months of that year were spent in Sydney.  I utterly loved my time there and for a long time mourned my departure and had often thought of going back to live there full time. 

I had such a wonderful two days in Sydney.  It really showed its best side to me and reminded why I loved it so much.  The hot winter sun certainly helped and I loved taking a trip down memory lane with a stroll down King Street into the ever funky Glebe, down past China Town and onto the madness that is circular quay.  Stopping for a rest at the Sydney Opera House outdoor bar, I sat there for a good hour enjoying a few cold beers and soaking it all up.  Words cannot describe how happy I was to be back in Sydney at that point. 

A walk round the botanical gardens and a few last tacky shots of me in front of the Opera House topped off what was a perfect afternoon, good good, great weather, seeing an old friend and one of my favourite bands the eels even had the courtesy to be happening to be playing in town that night.  It was a day that was almost too good to be true

I spent the next day mauling around my old neighbourhood of Newtown.  People used to tell me when I lived there that it was Sydney’s version of Camden but I have since lived in Camden and the last time I checked Newtown was not full of McDonalds, Starbucks and crappy chain bars full of pretentious middle class kids dressing like whomever flavour of the month was.  Camden has nothing on Newtown.  I also managed to spend more on clothes in two hours there than I did in my entire time in New Zealand.  Which was zero and it wasn’t because I was on a budget either.

 I was sad to leave Sydney yet again but I am confident I will be back one day and that I won’t be leaving. As sad as I was to leave my friends my friends in Wellington I am also glad I waited to leaving NZ to come to Sydney and not just a weekend away as the direct comparisons would have made for a depressing journey back.

Sun, fashion, music and the feeling that I have not fallen off the edge of the world.  How I have missed this.

See you soon Sydney.

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My self-service day started with a trip to the dentist for a check up. This is my first visit to the dentist since, well my last pamper day in Bangkok. People think I am joking when I insist I only ever go to the dentist in Bangkok but given how hard it is to get registered by a dentist in the UK and that I tend to move around a little too much to make it worth my while I always nip into to my regular dentist in Bangkok any time I am here just for a quick check up. The dentist surgeries in Bangkok are far cleaner and modern looking than anything I have seen in the UK. They even have TV screens for me to watch Thai soap operas on whilst the dentist poked around in my mouth before giving me a good boy sticker.

A former work college recently underwent 600 gbp worth of dental treatment back in Edinburgh. I bet I could get a flight to Bangkok, get the same surgery done and pay for a few days in hotel in Bangkok for the same money. If I could be guaranteed the same incredibly hot dental nurse I wouldn’t even think twice about it. A check up, cleaning and whitener (it’s probably industrial strength bleach!) cost 12 gbp. The hot incredibly dental nurse was free.

Next stop was the hairdresser at MBK, with the stylist giving me his opinions. He took the task of remodelling my dishevelled backpacker mop very seriously before settling on a first stage mohawk look (think a brunette Sonic the Hedgehog). Shampooed, conditioned and massaged, I looked a million bucks, and all for the cost of 8 pounds. On the way home a tuk tuk driver shouted ‘Hey sexy boy!’ Money well spent!

Then it was off for a facial. There are facial treatment places all over Bangkok, and to be honest with the amount of pollution there it’s no surprise. 30 minutes and 8 different types of facial treatments later, including having my face caved in by cucumbers (weird feeling!), I was only 4 gbp poorer.

Next up was the traditional Thai massage which is the staple of any visit to Thailand, and otherwise known as lazy man’s yoga. I must confess to enjoying having someone else pressing and bending my bones, whilst I just lay there. Whilst the word ‘massage’ usually triggers thoughts of relaxation and enjoyment, a proper Thai massage will leave you gasping for breath and gritting your teeth with pain, but you do feel much better after it. A Thai massage in the UK will set you back anything from 40 gbp upwards. It can cost as little as three pounds in Bangkok. On my first trip to Thailand I think I had one every day. A word of warning / advice depending on who’s reading this (I mean you Gavin), if the person giving you the massage looks like she may offer you a happy ending, she probably will.

So there you have it. Free of all the stresses and strains of backpacking, looking and feeling great, and all for a mere 27gbp.

I love Bangkok!

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It seems an odd ambition but it has really driven me to continue to go new places instead of visiting my old favourites. I shared this ambition with a wonderful friend of mine at the time who was sitting on the exact same amount of countries at a slightly more advanced age and we have been competing to get to thirty ever since. I am delighted that I will be reaching my landmark 30th country at the time of publishing this blog a whole 4 days quicker than her.

The first foreign country I ever visited was Spain aged eight; I doubt there is a person alive who was born in the UK in the 80’s who wasn’t taken to Spain on a package holiday by their parents. In times before Ryanair and Easyjet Spain was the destination of choice to most working class people in an age when people used to walk into travel agents and book holidays. A bizarre thought now I am sure you will agree.

The destination was Playa Den Bosa in Ibiza in 1990. I still remember my first ever flight, the hotel, the kids club, riding the mechanical bull in a bar on the beach, Italia 90 every day. My Dad taking me to see Germany celebrating winning the World Cup and then a squad of English people rocking up and throwing bottles at them. Now that I think about it I remember that holiday more than some of the boozy holidays I had in Spain when I was in my late teens. Given that they were in Magaluf and Benidorm it’s probably not a bad thing. I spent a lot of holidays in Spain up until I was about twenty two. If the Canaries and Baleric Islands were each countries in their own right, I’d be closer to forty countries by now.

China in 2004 was my first real travel experience. A holiday that came out of nowhere that which lit the torch paper. This was pre Olympics Beijing, before the big clear up. I saw very few tourists out and about and any time I was at a tourist attraction like the Forbidden Palace I was mobbed by Chinese tourists from the countryside to pose for photo’s with them. They probably had not ever seen a European man with peroxide blonde hair and loud dress sense or a tall female with Sideshow Bob style red hair! I do remember being at the Great Wall of China and taking some time to myself and being mystified as to how a guy from a council estate in Scotland whose previous holidays had been trips to Benidorm found himself to be standing on one of the world’s greatest landmarks in China of all places. For the first time ever I realised if I wanted it bad enough, I could do what ever I wanted to. Sadly this trip took place literally a few months before I got a digital camera and all my photo’s were destroyed in a flood. I would give anything to have those photo’s back.

In 2005 I sat at a friends leaving party before she went over to Australia for a year on a working holiday visa. I wasn’t even aware that you could do such a thing so easily. If she could do it, so could I, so a couple of days later I handed my notice in at work and booked a flight to Australia. and five years on, here I am at country number thirty.

Here is the run down of where I have been. I should point out that stop overs in airports and transits straight through countries don’t count

Spain
Portugal
Greece
France
Ireland
Finland
Norway
China
Belgium
Germany
Singapore
Australia
USA
New Zealand
Thailand
Laos
Malaysia
Sweden
Trinidad and Tobago
Venezuela
Colombia
Guatemala
Mexico
Holland
Denmark
India
Nepal
Cambodia
Vietnam
Burma

As you can see I have barely touched central and eastern Europe nor been to Africa.

Forty before forty should be a walk in the park!

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It’s a step into the unknown for me. I wasn’t expecting this trip.   I have been gifted ten extra days to get home so it was a spur of the moment decision.  Every trip I have ever done has been planned months in advance and organized like a military operation.  It feels great to have a trip appear out of nowhere.

It’s also quite apparent to me that as far as backpacking goes.  This may very well be it.  Of course travel will always be part of my life but it’s time to  move on from the now approaching five year traveling cycle that I have been on to concentrate on other aspects of my life. I want to go out on a bang.

Burma is the least traveled country of its South East Asia neighbours. Infact only 200,000 tourists went there last year.  That’s half a million down on Laos the second least tourist destination in that area. There is a boycott on traveling here supported by the UK and American Governments. A large percentage of the money spent by travelers here makes its way back to the ruling military junta. People have pointed out to me that Burma is politically unstable but so has Thailand since the military coup of Thaksin Shinawatras democratically elected government in 2006 and tens of millions of tours have passed through the passport controls of Thailand since.  Even as I go there now there is a chance that there may be a curfew in place but not one person has questioned my decision to go there.

I am also from the UK.  Involved in an illegal war, financial Armageddon.  under constant threat of foreign and home grown terrorism whilst under control from the second government in a row that we didn’t vote for. Hardly stable. Of course I am not suggesting that visiting Burma and the UK have the same risks.  Just highlighting that if you want to find negatives for reasons not to visit a country you will find them.

There are steps I will take to ensure that I am a conscience minded traveler. I consider visiting any part of the under devolved world a risk but feel it is important to maintain a source of income and resources that support locals as well as minimizing the money that will go to Junta. Tourism is one of the few industries accessible by ordinary locals that offer income and communication to the outside world. The Junta run state TV and media and restrict internet freedom to such websites as Hotmail and Facebook making it very hard for locals to develop there own thought on the outside world,  Tourist going to places like Burma have a responsibility to open up the world to these people just as the people of Burma can open up my eyes to their situation.

It could have been very easy for me to spend my two weeks in Thailand and visit places that I haven’t been to yet which mainly consist of the west coast beaches.  I am not a beach person, though I may regret saying that as I head to Burma in the height of the wet season and leave a New Zealand winter to join the start of a UK winter.

There was also the temptation of spending a few days pampering myself in Bangkok and heading  up to my favourite South East Asian destination Chaing Mai and just vegged for a week but then I would just be repeating myself and I would look back and be quite disappointed  in myself and probably consider it the first step to becoming on the many sad old European guys with mullets, tight sports tops and 80’s short with socks and sandals that appear to have gone on holiday to Chaing Mai in the early 90’s and never went home. 

Three of my favourite traveler friends have been to Burma and loved it.  Dave and Angela  whom I seem to follow around the world rated it as the highlight of their trip. There blog from that trip is well worth a read.  I met Sarah a Belgium girl on a night bus in Thailand  a few years ago and hung out there for four days together.  It turned out her flight to Burma was the same night as my flight back to Europe so we even went to the airport together.   She was there for 6 weeks volunteering mainly and loved every minute.  I requested a postcard from Burma from her and she was good to his word and sent me a spectacular postcard which I still treasure to this day.   If Burma is good enough for Dave Angela and Sarah then it’s good enough for me.  You can read about Dave and Angela’s travels in Burma here.

There is also the small matter of my achieving my thirty countries before I am thirty which will be the feature of my next blog!

Wish me luck.

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Here are some of the things I wont miss about living in New Zealand.

Being so far away

This is an obvious one, almost to obvious as I was well aware that New Zealand is 23 hours away on a flight with an Eleven hour time difference.  However four years ago I lived in Australia and it didn’t bother me one bit but boy do those extra two hours make a difference.  Too many weekends wasted from staying up late night watching football.  Too many bleary eyed Monday mornings after a Grand Prix.  Too many jaded early morning phone calls at late night UK time.  Quite depressing to come to work and check BBC World news at 9am and nothing happens between then and you leaving the office.   In New Zealand while you sleep.  The world lives.

It’s not just time, Living in New Zealand makes you think you may have just dropped off the end of the world.   Bands don’t come here,  Films take forever to get released here (if they come out at all)  I am aware that New Zealand isn’t the most boring country in the world but at least if you live in Switzerland you can nip over to Germany or Italy when you fancy.   Milton Keynes might be a terrible place. At least it has a Ryanair Airport.

Cost

Even before the credit crunch I have always had the impression that New Zealand and Australia has been held in a false pedal stool by working class people looking for a better life.   I have spoken to couples who have brought there families here expecting it to be the land of milk and honey. The filming of the Lord of the Rings in New Zealand must have roughly quadrupled the number of British people who fantasise about the country as a place of mystery and beauty to which they long to escape Whilst it was nieve to think that, It is still the general impression that this is a ‘better life’ since this is what was preached to us in the early days of emigration when New Zealand was billed as a Better Britain.     Wages are low in New Zealand.  In my industry I could have expected to earn 30% less than I did doing the same job for the same company. 

It’s not just wages, Costs of items like electronics .Cosmetics Clothes are extremely expensive here. The later is of very poor quality at high prices. Fashion in New Zealand is awful and I better stop as it’s probably a blog on it’s own.  Food shopping and every day items cost a lot more than in Europe.   It stems from a severe lack of consumer choice.   The best way I can describe it to my friends in the UK is imagine before going on holiday you have to buy Toothpaste, Medicine and all those other little things.  There is no Superdrug, Semichem.  All that’s there is Boot’s and their prices.

Boring

New Zealand promotes itself as the adventure capital of the world, Bundy jump, Sky dive, Luge,  you name it, you can do it here.  Which is great if you’re a tourist but when was the last time you came home from work and thought I might do a good old fashioned bungy jump to help me relax? In reality living in New Zealand is quite boring.    What about the landscape, surroundings, terrain and views? Oh yes, they’re all charming, dazzling, lovely, spectacular. However hillls and rivers don’t hide the fact that New Zealand is essentially the dullest place I have ever lived.  Wellington where I have been based for 5 months is meant to be a cosmopolitan city but busting is isnt. It’s pride and joy is Cuba Street which has a few nice café’s and a few Ops shops which is all fairly funky but not something you wouldn’t find in any inner city suburb in any other second class city.   Go out of the city and into the towns and look how busy the bars and restraunts are past 9pm.  All round New Zealand look how many people my age (late twenty something) are out and about.  It’s hardly any because at my age in New Zealand you are either already married or have left for overseas.   A guy in met in my hostel told me they came here for a change of lifestyle but felt like he had moved into semi retirement.  I can’t put it any better than that.

Sometimes living in New Zealand reminds me of what it was like to grow up in the UK in the 80’s. In small towns everything closes very early. In major cities it’s hardly much better.   Forget anything opening on a public holiday, Most pubs are closed on a Sunday.  Late night shopping? They haven’t heard of it here.   Yes, I know that this is how it is in many places around the world, but come on people! New Zealand’s main source of income are tourists, so do something about it. If I arrive late at a small town and just want to buy something to eat in a supermarket, why shouldn’t I be able to do that?   Public transport and the lack of it after 6pm is a real pain as well.

Cold houses

Property in New Zealand be it renting or buying, compared to that in UK, is cheaper but less well built.  Oddly many homes seem to be constructed for a much warmer climate and so if you are on the look out for a rental home or a house to buy make sure you pick one with central heating and insulation as the climate in NZ is certainly not Mediterranean by any stretch of the imagination. Sadly such accomidation is few and far between and at a premium.   I don’t know anyone who doesn’t go to bed with a extra heater on. Inevitably cold houses lead to damp houses.  I have spent night’s in houses where it is curiously colder in the house than it is outside.  

Rugby Culture

I am fed up of having it rammed down my throat by the Kiwi media and people in general about how much they love their Sport.

The All Blacks they symbolise everything I didn’t like about New Zealand, beer belching idiots, Farm and carboys idolising maniacal baboons undertaking homo-erotic acts.  It’s not that New Zealand is alone in having such types following sport but at least they actually bother to go to the games.  Watch any game from Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby version from the Champions League and you wont sell full stadiums, or half full stadiums.   These games are played on a weekly basis in empty stadiums.    Wellington Phoenix who apparently Wellington go mad for in the A-League. Average attendance is around nine thousand in a thirty thousand capacity.    I was at sporting events in what can be considered a fairly full stadium and the majority of people seemed more interested in dressing up, getting drunk and starting Mexican waves at key points in the game.

Ask a New Zealander to tell you something interesting about their country and they will mention scenery the All Blacks and they’ll probably come up with the America’s Cup. For the uninitiated, this is a yacht race.   The country has been living off this piece of sporting success for years.  Who cares!

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Fair well New Zealand. It’s been fun.

For me one of the best things about travelling after an extended period time, is to stop off in a city and work a little, raise your funds for your next trip. This gives you the opportunity to get a real feel for a city, the people, and the way of life. I have been fortunate enough to live and work in Melbourne, Sydney, London, and most recently Wellington, New Zealand, for the past 6 months.

A lot of my opinions are shared not just by backpackers however, but my friends and co-workers who have left Britain and Ireland to come live here. This is my observations of what people should expect when they come here to live. So before I get labelled a whinging pomp. Here are things I will really miss about living in New Zealand.

Coffee

Although I had heard that Wellington, New Zealand had a bit of a coffee culture, little did I know how seriously Kiwi’s take their coffee. Just about everywhere you go; the coffee shops, the cafes, the bakeries, the restaurants all seem to do a pretty amazing job with coffee. There are also quite a few espresso stands, espresso carts and trailers and since just about every café here serves hand pulled espresso drinks, I would venture to say that Wellington probably has way more espresso serving places per capita than anywhere else in the world… but this is just my own unscientific observation. At Wellington airport, I counted more than six coffee shops within my view of the departure lounge. To put it into perspective, the coffee that I order at the local megaplex cinema chain served to you by the same guy that serves you popcorn and watered down soft drinks is miles better than anything I have tasted in the chain coffee places that pollute the UK high streets. Also, if you are in a pub and you just asked for a coffee they won’t stare at you like you have two heads.

If you are in Wellington and love your coffee, checkout Aro street coffee house, Enigma, Ernesto’s, Café Italiano and Havana Coffee.

My mornings will never be the same again!

Good Food / Eating out

Eating out in New Zealand is very affordable. Whilst the sort of people who like getting dressed up and talking about the ambience or the décor of a restaurant instead of the actual food will be very disappointed, the food is very vey good. There is a big café shop culture here and they heavily out number actual restaurants, but the food all tends to be to the same high standard. It is also possible to eat a pub meal that would put most pub’s in the UK to shame. There are no microwave jockey’s here. There is no dress code, fancy décor and posh glasses, just good food that is affordable to almost everyone, with no stigma about taking your kids out. Whilst the overriding amount of takeaway food is Asian, there is a large variety of foreign influences as well as the famous Kiwi Fish’n’Chips, all of which tends to be cheaper that actually going to the supermarket and buying the food yourself. I found whilst I was staying in a hostel in Wellington that it was much cheaper and more convenient to buy a $10 (4gbp) curry from the local Malaysian place than it was to go to the supermarket and cook it myself.

Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my sushi, but I could never dream of eating it every day in Europe due to the cost. Well here in Wellington it is possible for me to spend $12-15 dollars (5 GBP) and have a very Wasabi happy stomach every lunch time. I haven’t even got enough space to go on about the wine and cheese here too! I am not a massive meat eater mainly because I am very sceptical of what I am actually eating when it comes to meat. I was born in the 80’s in the UK and there is not a country in the western world that would accept my blood in fear of me giving them the human form of mad cow disease. Here in New Zealand whilst you are outside the city you will see large quantities of healthy looking livestock in fresh green fields with acres of spaces to graze as they like. They don’t have to make a big deal of organic food at the supermarket here. There isn’t an alternative, and in turn I have tasted some of the finest meat and eggs I could ever wish for at a relatively low price.

Kiwi slang.

While the accent is sometimes a mystery to me (they do sort of chew on their vowels), I found Kiwi slang, somewhere between Aussie bushman and California surferdude, to be most amusing. It’s not every day you hear a fiftysomething, otherwise dowdy woman say “choice!” or “bonus!” to express pleasure or approval. At first I found it hilarious but as time went by I found it very endearing. I will never pronounce Fuish’n;Chuips any other way!

Scenery / Landscape

I don’t need to tell anyone how beautiful New Zealand is. I will really miss the variety of landscape they have here from the green, lush rolling hills of the North Island, to the beautiful beaches and stunning mountains of the South. I will miss the feeling of space, in the South Island especially. It is so easy to get out into the wilderness and feel like you’re the first person to tread there since… Gandalf. And to still make it back to town for Eggs Benidict and a flat white. Even in the capital city Wellington, you are no more than a twenty minute cycle from the Red Rock’s, which feels like you are on the moon or the coast lines of Miramar, which on a good day could be confused with the tropics.

Work/Life Balance

I recently read an article reporting surveys that show people living in New Zealand find that they have more free time to spend as they wish than they have ever had before. Working hours are shorter, and there is more to do outdoors and within the community outside of work, so this makes for a very good work/life balance. The people I work with always seem to be doing something or going somewhere at the weekends. The amount of people visibly running and cycling is noticeable compared to the UK, and from my own experiences work places actively encourage better work/life balances by subsidizing sport clubs and team events.

The rat race doesn’t exist here. Even Wellington CBD, the capital cities leading business district, lacks hustle and bustle. It’s very affordable to live in or around the city centre so people can walk or cycle to work. I don’t know anyone at works who’s commute is longer than 30 minutes. If you are commuting it tends to be from one of the coastal suburbs where you can view the magnificent coastal scenery all the way into the city.

The Northern line at 08:15 on a Monday morning this is not.

So there you go, all the things I will miss about New Zealand…

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