I should maintain my blog better

So once again I have let my blog go. Its been just over a year since my last post and gosh what a year it has been.

When I last blogged, I had been holidaying with the family for New Year, so I suppose I should really carry on from that point. The family left for England and I returned to Paihia. I don't think I have mentioned at this point that I had met a boy, not just a boy, a German boy at that. Having settled in Paihia, we became friends, ended up drunk on a night out and it kind of went from there. He joined us for our Christmas/New Year break and although neither of us were looking for a relationship whilst travelling but we had made the decision to spend the rest of our time in NZ together. He had already bought a car so it made sense to travel together.

I had initially only planned to stay in NZ for 6 months and return to the UK in January with the family after their visit. My tickets were booked, I had a place to study for my PhD starting in January and it seemed all planned out. However the German played a role in my choice to stay for longer.

So after several conversations with Qantas, I had rearranged my flights for the end of May so I could spend more time travelling and enjoying the NZ lifestyle.

We were both working as much as we could until early February to earn the maximum amount of money to be able to travel work-free. I was working 5 nights and some mornings in the Chinese (still hardly understanding anything that went on in the kitchen!) and the German was working full time in a local supermarket (at least he earnt over minimum wage!). It was summer, the weather was beautiful and things were good. We lived 70m from the beach which is where any free time was spent.

We left Paihia in February and moved back down to Auckland for a few days, the highlight of this being an AC/DC concert (which I actually enjoyed!). Our holiday then really began with a week in Tonga. It was just what we needed at the time. We stayed in the most beautiful hotel, Fafa Island Resort and it was lovely. We were well looked after and apart from the occasional lizard (which I hadn't been prepared for but should have anticipated being on a tropical island) it was perfect. We spent most of the holiday on the island relaxing and sunbathing, although we did have a couple of days out. This included my birthday present which was a day trip to Eua on a tiny little plane which seated about 8 people! We also took a day trip to the main island of Tonga and hired a car (in a very dodgy deal) for the day, which turned out to be a Mazda car with a Toyota key! The day saw us drive around the whole island and visit the main tourist highlights, which included making a quick exit when we were approached by a man with a machete!

On the whole it was just the week we needed and returned to NZ feeling good and looking forward to the rest of our NZ adventures!