A Quiet Week

The Beach at Titahi Bay

Sunset on Thursday night


It has been a quiet week after the last few weeks of fun and games. The week was spent in the classroom. I have managed to get out for a couple of walks and the weather is starting to get warmer. Only four weeks left here now.


The house is coming along nicely and should be finished well before we move in on 20th October. We have got a football match this week against a Kiwi team. I am glad it's football and not rugby!

Me out in the hills today

It's true, there are millions of sheep here!

Advanced driving course, birthday and skiing

The Beast!

Another great week here in kiwi land. I started the week with my advanced driving course. It's not quite the same as the driving courses i have been on in England. Lets just say that they are a little bit more laid back about the rules over here!

I got lucky for once and managed to get drawn in the brand new 3.6 litre Holden Commodore SV6. It is a beast and looks the part too. It's rear wheel drive, which is different to most things i have driven before. On Thursday we went to New Zealand's main race track. It was a good chance to give the cars an absolute thrashing. We got a full day on the track and had some great fun. I passed my exam and confirmation drive on Friday.

Giving the marked cars a good caning!


It was my birthday on Wednesday and our whole group went out for a curry in Wellington. Thanks to everyone for all the cards. I had them all put up in my tiny little room. My first birthday in New Zealand!

All my cards and my new Argyle shirt

A group of eight of us decided to head north to the Ruapehu ski fields on Friday for a weekend skiing. It is a four hour drive north from Wellington. It was a cool weekend, even though the weather was not very kind to us. We got a full day's skiing in on Saturday, but Sunday was storm bound, so we headed home. Mount Ruapehu is an active volcano and was featured in Lord of the Rings. It was a shame we did not get great views, but i have put a few pictures here for you.

At the top of the ski Tow

Looking across to the Pinnacles

Lots of nice snow!

Another tough week in the South Pacific!!

Team 2 after qualifying with the Bushmasters

I have completed another week here at the college. I am now qualified to use a Bushmaster assault rifle. It's a lovely gun to use and much more accurate than the Glock handgun. I have also been to a car auction on Saturday and bought a Honda CRV for less than £2000. What a bargain! It is my birthday on Wednesday and a few of us have planned to spend next weekend at Mount Ruapehu Ski fields. It is really cheap to ski and the conditions are perfect at the moment. Hopefully i will get some good pictures for you all to look at.

I am doing my advanced driving course this week, which should be fun. At the moment the course has been all fun, shooting and driving fast cars. The boring bit will then start as i will have five weeks in the classroom studying law! Nice.

Our new car

One week down!

I have survived my first week at the Royal New Zealand Police college. It has been great fun. I have just passed my qualifying shoot for the Glock 9mm handgun. We had a week's training on it and we ended the week with a qualifying shoot. I am training to use a Bushmaster assault rifle next week. Should be fun!


I have been training hard and have been running/swimming/cycling every day this week. I should start to see the positive effects of it all soon! There are some great mountain bike trails and walks in the surrounding mountains. I have already been planning some routes.

The view from my accomodation block