New Zealand Leads The World In Economic Growth But Some Of The Country's Poor Resort To Living In Cars...

According to the number crunching gnomes at Credit Suisse, New Zealand's wealth since the year 2000 has grown more than any other country in the world.
It must be something in the water down under because Australia ranks second.
I'm sure the economists in Auckland, New Zealand's richest city, are patting themselves on the back, congratulating each other and saying how clever they are.
And I'd applaud them too, maybe I will, when we eliminate poverty and reduce the growing gap between the haves and the have nots.
I should live that long.
So people like the Tuuu family of five are not compelled by circumstances beyond their control, to live in their car.
In the country called Aotearoa,
The Land Of The Long White Cloud.
For some, the forecasted future continues to appear bleak with black clouds
and very little sunshine coming their way...

Saturday 23 August 2014. Brando Wildboy Yelavich Becomes The First Person To Walk The Entire New Zealand Coastline...

I'm back! he called with a huge grin on his face a few meters from the end and the crowd of family, friends and supporters cheered him on.
He'd left there exactly six hundred days earlier.
Brando had climbed his Everest and strode into the history books and the country's folklore becoming, on Saturday August 23 at 3.45pm,
the first person to ever walk the entire coastline of New Zealand.
He had walked the talk.
He had dreamed it and he had done it.
And as we watched, instead of coming up the hill, he raced down the steep sandy slope, took off his pack and clothes and ran into the embrace of The Tasman Sea that had looked after him and fed him on his way south all those days ago. Then, to our cheering, he made his way up the final slope towards us.
My young friend had invited me to spend his last night before the final few kilometers with him at Tapotupotu Bay, just to the east of Cape Reinga. There was no way The Flying Tortoise wasn't going to be there.
A film crew were there too, making a doco about Wildboy for the New Zealand ADHD Association on how he'd quieted his demons and resolved the issues surrounding ADHD and his Dyslexia. They pall into insignificance now.
Throughout his journey his words and deeds inspired many thousands of young and not so young children with similar issues.
And those without any.
I arrived at Cape Reinga at the northern tip of Aotearoa New Zealand, The Land Of The Long White Cloud. My country. And couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
I knew it was a spiritual place but I wasn't ready for the strength of emotions and the profound affect actually being there would evoke in me.
If I didn't know better I would swear I had Maori ancestry. And I would be proud to.
The Cape is a place where The Tasman Sea
and The Pacific Ocean meet, their respective currents doing battle and causing much turmoil for seafarers.
Many were the reasons for tears of joy to flow on Saturday and flow they did. It was an emotional homecoming for the boy who left there all those days and experiences ago. While the crowd of well wishers watched, they realised the wayward boy had become a wonderful, confident, personable and articulate young man.
His parents Todd and Donella, his sister Brooke, his Grandparents, his Uncles and Aunts his girlfriend Ngaio, all of us there and those who couldn't be, have cause to be immensely
proud of Brando.
There were people there, and many too who weren't, who've been proud to met Brando on his walk and think about him as being the son they'd have liked to have had, but never did.
I am one of them...

A Celebration. The Hermitage Meets The Flying Tortoise...

Many of you will already know
and follow one of the world's most gorgeous blogs, The Hermitage.
The author, Rima Staines is an extraordinary artist, a writer with the most wonderful way with words, a musician and a beautiful woman.
She's been back in Aotearoa New Zealand for a few weeks revisiting the land of her mother and her mother's mother with her lovely man and partner Tom, a fellow dreamer, storyteller, poet, musician and acupuncturist.
Rima and I've been following each other's blogs for sometime and we both featured in Lloyd Kahn's bestselling Tiny Homes book.
It's not often that two bloggers from opposite sides of the world meet up and it was more than a total delight to enjoy some quality time together at Te Awanga in The Hawkes Bay. Sharing the important things in life before Rima and Tom flew out to Fiji prior to heading home to Devon and their latest project on wheels. Converting their Army issue RL Bedford into an enchanting home that moves.
Wheels have turned in Rima's life since she can remember. As she says, 'the characters in my paintings are wheeled, their houses are wheeled, my stories are wheeled.
Handcarts and wagons and caravans have always caught my eyes in that beautiful way a well loved colour or a certain kind of face stands out in a crowd.
Wheels call to me even louder if they have a door, a window or a chimney atop them.
Something about the combination of vehicle and house sets my blood thrilling.
Traveling, I have gradually realised over the years, and more specifically, living in a house that moves, is a fundamental part
of the person I am.
It's what makes my heart sing the highest and my feet feel the rightest'.
Rima and Tom. I wish you the bestest... 

A Crazy Coincidence And A Chance Meeting...

Hello I'm Kim from Finland and I've been following your blog for two years he said, standing there smiling in the morning sun.
The Flying Tortoise was back at Ahipara for some kite fishing and hopefully a few flounder.
I first saw you on Lloyd Kahn's blog and then I found yours.
Imagine me sitting at my desk in Finland, 25,000 kilometres away, it's winter and I look out the window and see a carpark.
I look at your blog and I see sunshine, sea and beautiful landscapes. 
Wow it was inspiring, and so here I am.
When I came to New Zealand I had this crazy idea that we might meet and when I saw your bus sitting here I nearly drove off the road. 
I'm so glad you didn't and that we did said I, equally amazed at someone arriving and telling me they've been following the blog for two years and in part inspired by it, here they are.
Kim's an industrial designer in Helsinki, has been travelling with his girlfriend from Finland, through Siberia, Russia, Japan, Bali, Malaysia and Thailand and now New Zealand.
Soon it's back to Finland for Kim to replenish his travelling fund, build a campervan and then one day he and his girlfriend will return to Aotearoa, the Land Of The Long White Cloud.
Perhaps they'll stay...