Mangawhai Travellers Rest

New Zealand . Joined in September 2015

Kia ora. I'm a 63 year old New Zealander originally from Henderson in West Auckland. ( 2022 November 20 ) I bought this house way back in 1994 when I was living in Japan and I came back to Mangawhai to live in it in 2009. My parents first brought us up to Mangawhai on holiday in 1968 and they moved here to live from 1980 - 2000. I know this area well. I spent short periods here as a young adult and spent a year living out at Mangawhai Heads for a year in 1984 while working at Marsden Point Oil Refinery to save money for my first big O.E. ( overseas experience ) during which I travelled overland through Asia and Europe to the U.K - then back again - and then hitch-hiked around Australia. I went to Japan in 1990 on a working holiday visa and hitch-hiked for two months and ended up living there ( Nagoya, Yokkaichi and Kyoto ) for 6 years During that time I also travelled in China and Korea, the West Coast of the U.S.A., Mexico , Kenya, Madagascar, Isreal and Egypt. I speak Japanese and Indonesian and am qualified to teach English Language ( 16 years experience ) and I now teach music through guitar . I play guitar and percussion and paint/draw and do a lot of writing and am involved in a variety of political advocacy groups. ( environmental/human rights/energy / sustainable transport etc. I'm a non-smoker,non-drinker, vegan, a utility cyclist and a body-surfer. I enjoy being around other people who are out travelling the world, and with other progressive thinkers.