Hi Anoma – thank you also for the warm welcome and pleased to meet you.

It hasn’t even been 24hrs since I joined (at approx. 11pm NZT last night) and already there’s lots of things to sink my teeth into, so I can’t wait to get started. I am however focussing on keeping a level keel, as another of my ‘habits’ is to lean too far into something ‘new & exciting’ to the detriment of other activities (e.g. work or time with the wife and/or kids). So have to ease myself into it.

I’ve lived in NZ all my life (in Auckland) and certainly the South Island has some stunning scenery, but I’m ashamed to say it’s only been this recent Xmas break that I’ve made more of an effort to ‘live like a tourist’ in my local neighbourhood. This has included venturing out with the family on even just small day trips to both the East and West coasts (which doesn’t take long, compared to the US!) and finding lots of amazing nature walks and beaches that I’ve always heard of but never bothered with before (or last went when I was a child). And I’m very glad we’ve done so, as we’ve now got some great pictures on the wall to remind us of our recent travels (attached a couple of photos as examples 😀).

I hope you get the chance to visit NZ if/when the whole Covid situation settles down to some sort of normality as right now it’s just painful to travel in general, let alone half a world away! (my wife is from Korea and we don’t know when she’ll be able to go back to visit her family sadly).