When Punks Rule The Earth …

Sitting in an AirBNB in the Bay of Plenty, exploring a part of Aotearoa I haven’t really been to and looking out over the bay to Mount Maunganui. It has been an interesting holiday and a little longer away from home than usual after visiting family in Auckland for New Years. I always find it interesting staying in other people’s houses and trying to figure out how they live based on what I can see. I doubt I get it right very often but the stories in my mind and the internal dialogue are always amusing.

I always find the North Island visits to be an odd mix of strange and familiar and how oddly empty the towns feel but how many people are always “just there”. Coming out of Auckland and very built up and close houses to small towns that are wonderfully NZ but are a mystery in terms of how they survive. As always visiting a place is the only way to get a feel for it and I have been surprised how “off” most of my opinions of places are. Towns and cities I thought I had a good understanding of turn out to be something completely different, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a challenging way.

As most of the gin and whisky enthusiasts I know are in Auckland it has been a great chance to share some of my experimental distilling hobby and get feedback for next steps. It turns out I am harder on my efforts than other people, although they may be simply being polite as they struggle through my latest attempt. Distilling has turned out to be a really fun hobby and I have had a moment to plan out my next projects.

Looking forward to heading home now and a bit of hobby time before getting back into the working year. Once again I have no major plans for the year other than to see how things unfold. A bit of a “go with the flow” time in life it would seem.