Ed does the AA This the account of Ed Powell, a man in his 20s exploring SE Asia and Auckland. My moto - "Bringing the world together, 1 step at a time"

Greetings from possible one of the furthest places I could be from the UK - Auckland. Let me start by back tracking to my last blog. Since then I made it out of Cambodia in a mini van full to the brim of rucksacks and people through rivers, roads (sort of) and borders. I reached my destination after around 12hrs in a fixed position or as I like to call it solitary condrivement - Koh Chang. Clutching what was left of my ear in my hand I headed to the nearest pharmancy where a slightly dodgy looking thai guy gave me a dose of the strongest anti-biotics he had behind the counter. Koh Chang was an island that was around 8-10hrs (depending on the wind direction) from Bangkok and was supposed to have beautiful beaches and cheap accomadation according to my french friend Flo. It kinda did but the weather and my health put a downer on the time. After 2 days I headed back to Bangkok and met up with Ben Affleck and Mike from Koh Tao and Cambodia and chilled (loose term) for a couple of days before I flew to NZ. After spending whatever local currency I had left I departed for the airport. At the airport the quantas welcome desk woman failed to reach my requirements. My logic was to arrive late and see what I could blag with my cute put on for affect English accent. The hussle was on.... Question 1 - Could I have an upgrade please. No. Question 2. Could I have extra leg space please. No. Question 3. Could I have an aisle seat. Yes. Praise the lord, I thought I'd lost my mojo. Then in true kick you in the crutch style whilst entering the plane good old BA lead you through 1st class, then business class to the ramble at the back of the plane. Talk about Bullseye scenario - lets look at what you coulda won. Anyway, the couple I sat next to were quality Austalians who understood the policy of not talking to much but holding intelligent conversation when we did. They obviously had taste, they were returning from a holiday in the UK. 13 hours later, a mad dash through Sydney airporrt, 0hrs sleep, LOTR 2 Towers, Extras season 1, camp air stewards and crap plane food I reached my destination. All in all, it was an excellent flight. I revelled in the amount of leg room due to the confinment of the last 2 months. The real fun was about to start. Auckland shone like a beam of light as you approach the airport. It seemed clean, golf courses a plenty and hot showers. As I exited the plane I headed to passport control where I was met with a massive queue. Surely there is some form of racism happening when the NZ passport holders have more staff controlling there line than us Brits! Anyway after the fat NZ women let me pass I went to baggage. Here I was amazed that my bag was waiting for me already (only in Germany have I exprienced this) so I though now I only need to exit the place. Wrong. NZ has this random quarantine/ Bio hazard check thing that you have to go through. Now this check point was far to small and needs expanding because the queue was huge! After dodging yet more fat NZ people (seriously they could film fat camp here. Its like fern Briton mated with Jonah Luma and there love children were walking around) I had to declare what substances were in bag because they could be a bio-hazard to the country- How I thought, could a bamboo football be a hazard? After I had my bag searched I then had to go through an x-ray machine. Suddenly remembering I had not declared the cambodian knife in my bag, I skillfully distracted the fat NZ women from looking at the x-ray machine and instead made her look into my baby blue eyes. I finally exited to see Paul waiting for me with his legs crossed as he had needed a piss for about an hour as I had been delayed going through. We finally left and I couldn't help but notice there was no-one around! The population over here is by far inferior to anything I have seen as there is litarally no-one around. That afternoon Paul took my to some beaches and showed me around Auckland whilst fun lozzer stayed at home with Gracie whom I met for the 1st time which was cool. She is cute and cos I'm such a natural with children (hmmmmm) we struck a rapour. I then got messaged by a friend of mine who I worked in Turkey with 6yrs ago telling me she was working in the city so we've now hooked up and we're gonna go snowboarding at the weekend with a group of people. I've also stayed at Rosie & Pete Amess' place for the last couple of nights (good friends from Cheltshire) so its been cool catching up with them. Anyway I'm gonna go but Ill upload pics of my trips to the sky-tower and beaches shortly. Hope all is well where ever you are, NZ is surprisingly warm considering its winter. Until next time, Whats next. Ed p.s ear is nearly back in 1 piece. p.p.s if you wanna chat to me, my skype name is ed-powell(maverick) and you can catch me either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Email for an appointment.