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Catching up- Pottering round Auckland

27/2/2016

Over the weekend with Vaness I had managed to get in touch with Martin, a Kiwi who had worked back home with my uncle Dave way back, 30 years ago. They were kind enough to invite me to stay at their place in Mt Eden while I found my feet, I was relieved to be out of out of a hostel, financially more than anything and it gave me a really comfortable base to be able to carry on looking for work. Martin mentioned fairly early on that he was going to be driving down to Christchurch in a couple of weeks to volunteer as part of the crew running a mountain bike race from Christchurch to Queenstown and I should give them a shout to see if they had anymore spaces, so I did and they did. With a deadline set for a free ride south for what sounded like a pretty awesome trip I spent the next week or so trying to line up a job to come back to. I met some awesome people and really cool companies, most of whom were willing to meet me for a chat if nothing else to find out more about what I was looking for.

Christian a mate from last winter put me in touch with Eleri a rad welsh girl, whose been over in NZ for a while now. She was keen to show me what Auckland had on it's doorstep! We met up and escaped the city for a couple of surfs up at Muriwai and Orewa. Mid job hunt, a couple of sunset paddles kept things cruisey. Surfing wise something might click if I manage to put some more time in soon. Tar Eleri!

I managed to spend some time drawing too.

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Catching up- Back in New Zealand

22/2/2016

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Coming back to New Zealand was really difficult, it annoyed me I felt like that, but it was off the back of an awesome couple of weeks somewhere I just didn’t feel ready to be leaving. It crossed my mind for sure that I could quite easily spend the next year in Aus, looking for the same sort of work as I am out here. It turned out I was way more sold on beach life than I ever thought I would be. I felt like I had rushed into my working holiday here when I could’ve been in Australia, but this is where I decided I wanted to be this year and there's no chance I’m gonna waste it! Timing really is a dick, but who in their right mind would be so reluctant to come back here. It’s just taken me a couple of weeks some very special people to realise that.

I flew back to Auckland on the 6th of Jan, up until this point travelling hadn’t really felt like travelling. My months holiday in Aus had lead straight into work with Rupert and back to another holiday in Aus. Pretty ridiculous. This time was different though, I was arriving without the comfort of going straight up to Rupert’s. I did have a loose plan, which involved putting a load of pressure on myself to find the same sort of work elsewhere on the North Island for the remainder of summer, at least for a couple more months before heading south for winter. A very loose plan, I’m writing this from Wanaka…

I spent a day wandering round Auckland, printing CV’s, drinking coffee and just feeling slightly trapped between wanting to travel and finding work, gradually getting more frustrated. Then I got a message from Vaness, Vaness is a friend of Rupe and Lou’s. Who I had met twice before Christmas and briefly at that, she's french. We had a quick catch up over messenger and she picked up on the fact I was super grumpy. Instead of ignoring me I guess she figured she could help, so she told me to snap out of it and took me for a drive up to Piha to take some pictures.

Thank you Vaness for slapping me with a dose of Piha, waves, sunset and fire dancers. It sorted me right out.

As we started driving back Rupe called her, Lou had given birth to Lily. Perfectly timed news.

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Australia II- Better late than never

13/2/2016

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It's a long time since Christmas but I thought I would share a few photos while I sort though a heap from the last couple of weeks.

Having worked for Rupert for a few days it dawned on me that I hadn't got any plans for Christmas, and I hadn't really given myself the best chance to meet anyone to spend it with. Even though that changed by the end of my time with Rupe and Lou I was desperate to go back to Aus (having been semi invited) so I booked a flight for Christmas Eve.... I just neglected to tell Beth.

George's original plans had fallen through so he ended up being another stray taken in by the Wakelings, which Linda loved I'm sure. My first southern hemisphere Christmas turned out to be one of the best I've had, despite being so far from home, soz fam.

A couple more weeks of pottering around the sunshine coast followed until I flew back to Auckland a week or so into the new year.

Happy belated New Year! I will probably be playing catch up over the next few days so keep an eye.

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Catching up- Pottering round Auckland

Catching up- Back in New Zealand

Australia II- Better late than never

ANGUS DONALD

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