So, after over three months on the road, we've been back home in New Zealand for about two weeks.
We flew Singapore Airlines from Heathrow to Auckland with a two hour stop-over in Singapore. I must admit, I highly recommend flying Singapore. Great service, very friendly staff, and more gin and tonics and Singapore slings than perhaps were needed. We left Wednesday evening and arrived home Friday evening, so about 30 hours in transit.
It must be said, it's nice to come back to a New Zealand summer after a London winter - from single figure temperatures to high teens, sun shine and beaches. Still, there's something to be said for the crispness of a London winter's night, especially with the Christmas decorations up - walking through Hyde Park in the evenings heading to the Winter Wonderland, Regent and Oxford Street lights, the beauty of the watery light coming in through the empty branches of deciduous trees. Plus mulled wine and hearty English meals! Unfortunately we missed snow, but I'm sure there will be another chance.
I think there will be lots of things I'll miss about the other side of the world. The sheer magnificence of the world's great cities, the ease of getting about - staying in one city and then going for dinner in another - experiencing new cultures, new ways of doing things, and of course the cuisine!
Still, it will be nice to be home for Christmas. I've been swimming, caught up with family and friends, eaten BBQ...
Okay, in a lot of ways, New Zealand is not as first world as it likes to think it is. It's public transport is expensive and slow - no underground or light rail to speak of - it's infrastructure needs a lot of work, for a society that considers itself bicultural there are an awful lot of people who only speak one language and its media needs a good seeing-to.
Still, I went for a walk along Raumati Beach on Saturday night. The sky was hundreds of different shades of blue, the water clear, the sand clean and I didn't have to fight any crowds as there was hardly anyone there. And it's moments like that, of tranquility and peace, that make you realise that, for all its faults, for all its backwardness, New Zealanders are lucky to live in a particularly beautiful part of the world.
We'll go back... but we'll need to save a bit of $$ first.
Right... time to find a job and somewhere to live! Will keep y'all posted!
