Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Introduction

More about me
I was born (1956) in a small city called Invercargill that is located at the bottom end of the South Island of New Zealand.
Invercargill has a population of about 50k and is the major city of Southland, which is mainly a farming community... If you like sheep you are in the right place (and fishing).
When I was 16 the family relocated to Christchurch and is when my parents have now lived for over 40 years and where I have a holiday house available for House Swapping.

After leaving Invercargill I have lived in the following cities:
New Zealand:   Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington
South Africa:  Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban
Australia:  Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne (now more than 30 years)

Prior to starting the house swapping I have traveled extensively which may have given me the bug to want to house swap in retirement.
Of course I have been around the South Island many times. I travel to NZ twice per year for the last 15 years mainly to go fly fish with my fishing mate Ron, mainly camping if the weather permits.
The North Island I have toured around most places but it is the Bay of Islands that stands out and would recommend it for a visit.
After NZ I lived in South Africa for 6 years and went on numerous trips to the game parks.
Kruger is the best known and easiest to do but Etoshia and Kalihari were more remote and more natural.

Prior to purchasing our first house in Melbourne I took a year of work
The mortgage rates were 18% at the time and so saved a lot by not getting a loan at that time.
During that year we traveled 3 months in Europe, in a Combi Van, 3 months in South Africa, 3 months in Outback Australia, and  3 months in NZ.
I have since been to China (Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Yellow Mountains)... Loved the place
Thailand (Bangkok), KL, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada (Alberta, BC), USA  (Montana, Wyoming)
So I have had plenty of adventures with all those places with only a few photos and lots of forgotten memories.
But for now for my House Swapping travel begins... Having an iPad makes it so much easier to take photos and stay in touch when traveling.
This blog site will focus on my house swaps and what to expect in the immediate area.
The TravBuddy links below are for the additional traveling I do once it am at the house swaps.

My Shared Links


Acknowledgments
Andrew Sheldon
Several years ago I found Andrew's Blog and was fascinated with it. I have always wanted to go to Japan but never really had any opportunity. Reading Andrew's comprehensive reviews of both Japan and New Zealand I was able to reinforce my own opinion of NZ and have an understanding of Japanese life for a foreigner.
Holly Kavonic
While in South Tahoe I visited an Art Gallery and saw several of Holly's masterpieces. Her paintings are of both South African and lately North American People and Wildlife. They were very impressive and I love that style of paintings. I contacted Holly to introduce her to Rebekah Codlin a young NZ artist, from the Nelson Area, that has a similar style of paintings one which hangs proudly in my apartment in Christchurch. I mentioned to Holly that I was doing a House Swap which was my reason for being in South Tahoe and she said that she thought I should do a blog.
So that was going to be my project for when I wanted some quite time and to rest my feet.

So after reading Andrews blogs I thought that it would be good to document my House Swapping adventures so that friends, House Swappers, and anyone else that was interested could read.
Perhaps it is also so that I won't forget what I have done. A lot of my previous travels are now lost somewhere inside my head never to be found again (age).

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so the design may change as I figure out how it all works

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