I first met Anna early last year, on a dive trip. We got on well from the start – just as well since we were doing a lot of work together as we began working towards being PADI Divemasters. It wasn’t until the middle of the year that we became an item. This worked out well, as we got to know each other in a more relaxed, friendly manner, before we started going out together.

Obviously my trip to South America put some strain on the relationship, but we got through that, and I moved in with Anna on my return. Things have been going well, and so I decided to make the next step. You can just drift along otherwise.

Anna didn’t know it was coming, but I first sought approval from her father, then surprised her by asking her to marry me, on the banks of the Hatea River in Whangarei. Once she established I was being serious, she agreed with almost unseemly haste. Now we just need to plan the details, of which there are many, but few resolved.

It turns out that men just say “Congratulations” while women go straight into planning mode, discussing outfits, arrangements, flowers…best I just keep out of all of that.

Someone asked me what it was that attracted me to Anna. The best way I can describe it is that she lights up a room, if not the whole house. You know when she’s entered a room, it is full of laughter and noise. The house is quiet when she’s not around. Anna’s social functions are a highlight, with great lengths gone to, to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves. There’s the bright, vibrant Anna that most people see, but there’s also the quieter, determined Anna, that would do anything for her friends. She’ll help you, but she won’t stand for bullshit from you.

She’s good for me – I just need to be good for her.

We use Splunk at work, and they were having their first ever conference. A couple of days in San Francisco, one of the great cities of the world, did I think I could go? You’ll have to stay in a hotel like this one though. Er…is a fish waterproof?

Turned out to be a good conference too, lots of ideas on things that we could do to get better use out of Splunk. Lots of serious sized organisations there, with some pretty massive installations.

Good to walk about in San Francisco too, a little shopping, a little sight-seeing. I visited the Apple temple, but it was a bit overwhelming. There’s so many iMacs, iPhones and iPads there to play with, so many people, most of them just using it as a free Internet cafe, plenty of stock being sold. There seemed to be presentations going on, classes for older users, blue-shirted Apple staff everywhere…Steve Jobs is a genius. Somehow the store was a destination.

Clothes shopping is cheap there too – Levis are around $50NZD, vs at least $100NZD here. Someone’s ripping us off. Pity all the shirts these days are in the “lumberjack” style.

I ate in Chinatown several times. Last time I was there, I ate in Chinatown, and thought it was good, but that was before spending several months in China. I’m pleased to say that I still see it as good. Although I’d rather be in China…

One of the surprising things about downtown San Francisco is the numbers of winos, homeless people, and general derelict types, just a few blocks from the financial district. There’s also a disturbing side to it – while I was there, a tourist was shot, just a couple of blocks from my hotel. Just doing the sort of thing I might have been doing, out walking around, ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Things like that could happen anywhere though.

Oh and it wasn’t cold, but it certainly was cool during a San Francisco summer. Heatwaves 50 miles away, fog over the Bay Area.

Unfortunately Anna is a student these days, so I had to go out and find work. Find it I did, a little different to my usual line of work, with a small-medium sized New Zealand business. It’s been quite interesting so far, and with some fairly serious growth plans, it could be an interesting ride over the next few years.

It does mean commuting to work by car, something I’ve never done before. All the previous jobs I’ve had, I’ve walked (mostly), rode a bike, taken the bus, or maybe the train. But for once, I’m driving a car. Very strange. Everyone else is going the faux-eco-hippy route, I seem to be regressing.

But the other work that has been going on is, at long last, completing my PADI Divemaster certification. I did most of the work for this last year, but didn’t quite finish it before going on the road. But, at long last, after far too many dives in Lake Pupuke, and way too much time in the pool, I’ve finished!

Will be quite nice to go diving purely for the sake of diving, and not have to worry about passing this or that task, and only have to worry about cleaning and storing my gear, not rinsing out 15 wetsuits…

One of the particular favourites is the “Sugar and Spice” biscuits. These are a chewy, spicey biscuit, with a strong hint of ginger to them. However, my mother has for years quite strongly stated that “There Is No Ginger In Them.” This has become something of a running joke in the family.

How can this be possible – how is it that so many people who try them think they are a ginger biscuit? At last, some detective work has revealed the answer. Looking at the ingredients, ginger is not listed…but mixed spice is. Who knows what’s in mixed spice? Well, I didn’t know, and it does vary by manufacturer, but I happened to be looking at a packet of Greggs mixed spice, and noticed it contained…ginger.

Ha! No more denying it, they are indeed ginger biscuits.

But it’s OK Mum, we still love them.

It’s a bit rough, but it’s close enough to where I went. Over time I’ll add links from waypoints to blog entries, so that you can tie things together.

Came racing down the hill, up to a wooden obstacle that I’ve gone over before, going a bit fast, OK hit the brakes a touch, whoops, the wood’s wet, the bike slips out, and things all go horribly wrong.

Next thing I’m lying on the ground, the bike is several feet away, wheels spinning, Samson the dog is checking me over, and yet remarkably all my limbs are still working. A few minor bruises, a bit of a rest needed, then we go to set off. Hang on, the chainring doesn’t look right – should be it be in two pieces?

Not cheap to replace either, $135, since they only had an XT ring available. Could have been worse, could have been me snapped in two

As you can see, it tidies up the look a lot. Yes, the Cutline theme is frightfully common, but too bad, it’s a nice clean look. I do quite like the rotating image across the top of the page – every time you reload, or click on a new page, you’ll see a new image. You can use the Tags on the right hand side to choose all posts related to a country I’ve been to, and when you’re reading a post, there will always be a link to the next and previous posts. This will make it far easier navigating the older posts.

All the old content is still there, but in a new format. You should still be able to post comments, etc, but you won’t be using Google logins – you can just enter whatever details you like.

There will be problems, not least of which is that I’ve moved the base links around – instead of having the blog at northlandboy.com/blog, it is now going to be at northlandboy.com/- this will affect your bookmarks!

RSS feeds have also changed – this is now at http://northlandboy.com/feed. If you are reading this via the old RSS feed, you must update your reader now, or it will not receive any new posts.

Any problems, please let me know, so I can get it fixed ASAP.

Still to come: Interactive route maps, perhaps with links to posts and pictures. At some point my older photos will get moved to Picasa, to make slideshows easier. I’m also going to put together a “highlights” slideshow.

Because my brothers, sister, and parents all live in different cities (and countries), it’s not often that we are all in the same place at the same time. Weddings and funerals it seems. Last time was not under the best of circumstances, but this time things were a fair sight better. More laughs this time:

From Auckland Miscellaneous

With some people staying with Anna and I, and others staying nearby, we ended up with a full house on Saturday night – brothers and sister, with their partners and children, in-laws and out-laws, plus a few hangers-on. Rather good times, eating some good food, having a few drinks, etc. Turns out that having a game involving putting out candles with the palm of your hand is not the best idea, as one contestant can attest. But it was a good time, catching up with family.

The following morning, Anzac Day, we weren’t in the best shape for getting up to go to Dawn Parade. There’s always next year for that. But Nic and Dave put together a nice breakfast, followed by one proper photo of the lot of us:

From Auckland Miscellaneous

House felt a bit empty by the time we finally got rid of the last of them…Oh and Nic got us a great present, which I’ll send photos of once we get it mounted and displayed – a destination roll from a 1980’s bus, showing various locations around the upper North Island. Very fashionable it turns out (I had no idea).

Oh and there will be some changes before the next blog post – I need to change to Wordpress, will take a bit of mucking around to get things working. Hopefully all links will keep working.

It’s been nice to be home. One of the problems of moving around is that no matter where you are, you always seem to be missing somewhere else that you’ve been. But as I said before, this time I feel ready to be in New Zealand. Sunshine for the first week, along with catching up with friends and family certainly helped. Most importantly, I now have a steady supply of Vogels bread and peanut butter, not to mention wide distribution of superb meat pies.

Savings won’t last forever, so I will start actively seeking employment soon. Truly. Really. I will.

Oh and a special mention of Cascade Designs, the makers of Therm-a-Rest sleeping mats. My Prolite 4 had started delaminating, after hundreds of uses. But they have a lifetime warranty, and the local distributor honoured it. Sent it in, and they quickly sent out a replacement. New model too, same size and weight, but 20% warmer. Nice. The only thing that I’m annoyed about is that these are listed as $100USD on the US website, but locally sell for closer to $300NZD. Should be more like half that – dunno if it’s the distributor or the local retailers jacking up the prices.

A couple of years ago, I wondered if I would be able to settle down, and do the house/dog/white picket fence thing. Well, it wasn’t to be – I couldn’t settle down at first.

How things have changed – most of those elements are now in place, and I expect to stay in the same city for at least the next three years. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing any more trips like this ever again, it just means they will be shorter trips over the next few years, and probably closer to home. I still want to ride across the USA, but it can wait a while. It will still be there in 3 years, it’s not going anywhere (no matter what the radicals might say). It will be a slightly different place then of course, but that’s neither here nor there.

And you know what? I’m happy about being home. More than that, I’m ready to be home, and settle for a while. If I hadn’t done this last leg, I would have wondered about it, wondered if I was doing the right thing in staying at home. It was probably a good thing that I chose Patagonia for this trip – because to be completely honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. Could have been a different story if I’d been back in China. Would I have wanted to come home from that?

I have thoroughly enjoyed riding around the UK though. It can be an underrated place, but if you’ve got the money, it’s a great place to ride around. Probably just as well I added this onto the end of the Patagonian trip, because it gave me quite a boost. It’s also one of the few places you can spend hours riding every day, and still gain weight, from all the beer and stodgy food.

Jan also pointed out one good thing about having completed my RTW circuit – I can now go anywhere, I’m not constrained by having to complete the loop – instead I can choose destinations on the basis of interest, not geography. We’ll see.