Good one Santiago. SEABASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If anyone is considering coming to NZ let sand flies enter the equation because they are little shits. They are responsible for multiple scaring on my legs. However I do have to admit that the little blighters leave a very satisfying itch.

A few weeks ago at arranga we had a bit of ripsnorter. There was a full on immigration raid at arranga. This was first thing in the morning. The police put up road blocks exiting the hostel to make sure that no “undesirables” slipped the net. However this still led to chaotic scenes of people hiding in toilets ,showers and the forest behind the backpackers. Thankfully as I hold a lovely English passport these were not avenues that I needed to explore! The bizarre thing is that even if you do hold a working visa some nationalities are not allowed to work in the northland due to the high Maori population

Keeping with the general theme of the trip I have once again changed jobs and I am now working as a pine tree lifter/cutter/puller. This is quite a crap job really, partially because of its location (kaikohe, good god) and also because of the monotony of the job which becomes plainly obvious after 1 hour. However the general fooling around in the job makes it quite enjoyable. Also the smell of pine trees is damn good.

Our boss at Horizon 2 is Georges Pierre Dembon, he is an Afrikaner. First impressions were he was a bit boring. All this talk of root genetics and general palm tree trivia can grate a little at 0715. Anyhow it turns out that he is a bit of renegade in his native land of Zimbabwe. So much so that he has been black listed and booted out by the Mr Mugabe.

Bought a bike the other day and i am going to cycle from Kerikeri to Bluff (look it up on the map its pretty rad) the general consensus from people I have told about this trip is that I will die. Fear not though I survived France unscathed with a bit of juice left in the tank. The only thing that is slightly un nerving is reports of 120km northward winds from Invercargill and lots of snowfall. In all fairness things could get a bit tasty on the south island.

I managed to do a rather vague survey of the terrain between kerikeri and Auckland whilst driving down in the car the other day. It looks good bar a few major downhill gradients. I asked Ken and Max (weekend employers also hailing fro Rhodesia) about terrain in the south island apparently it’s flat, good. I looked at a map after this conversation and it appears one or the other is lying. I am inclined to believe the map and question whether Ken and Max have ever been down to the south island.

At this very moment I am abiding by my strict fiscal policy of only spending money from my NZ bank account. I try not to convert this back to pounds as it generally makes me cry.

In the space of a few minutes I have re considered my final destination and it is now the Speight’s brewery in Dunedin or the Robert Burns statue in Dunedin. Shambolic plan really, Dunedin is a long way from here never mind home!

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