Preface...

Hello, and welcome to my blog. In forty-four days, I will be on t'other side o' world, dropping the honest Yorkshirian apostrophication for an Australasian twang. The idea behind this, in its most basic form, is to keep everyone updated as I bumble around the Antipodes armed with little more than my travel guitar, my GoPro camera and my girlfriend, Amy. Whether this plan is kept to, we will have to wait and see, but therein lies my intention.

Rather like the creepy girl in The Ring, I've spent my time since graduating desperately trying to claw my way out of the dark well of my student finances; and now, after living on the breadline and beneath for two years or so, I'm finally making a bid for freedom and buggering off to New Zealand. 


Flying to Auckland at the end of October, we will be leaving behind our wonderful families, friends and our beloved hound, Prince. I'll be kissing goodbye to my guitars and bikes; Amy will be abandoning her memory-foam pillow and extensive wardrobe as we voyage in search of a summer that actually delivers what summer should; warmth, sunshine, and a killer tan - characteristics that the past few months have decidedly failed to provide this year, but are generally guaranteed from December to March on Te Ika-a-Māui [you watch; I've jinxed it now].


I'm under no illusions though; I'm not expecting some Shangri-La-esque utopia - I know it still rains over there, I know that parts are still reeling from the devastation of tectonics and I know it's had the same economic woe felt in the UK. But I also know that going to a beautiful country that covers a similar area but has only a fraction of the population of Britain can only be a good thing.


We haven't got a route mapped. We don't know where we want to go yet and we haven't got a time frame besides our one-year visa, so I don't want to speculate what we're going to do, where we're going to be and when. 


This is truly going to be an adventure, and one I am itching to begin. 


Mike