Packing it in

Last week I made a decision I had been grappling with a while, and decided to book my ticket back to the lovely Aotearoa after summer wraps up here.

But why Lawrie why?!

The main reason is that I've run out of touring money. I have had to take a real job and stop moving around and that has taken some of the shine off living in a van.

Further, my experience of UK winter was cold, dreary, dark and miserable. If I can't go to Spain and Italy like I was hoping to and instead need to put myself to work, why not do that in the sunshine? If I follow the sun back to New Zealand I get to further my career at home, spend much desired time with family and friends and sit in the sun, beer and BBQ, for 18 months straight.

The van (whose name in vogue is Dorothy - no place like home) will be stored and wait patiently for my return in April or so 2015.

Logically it all checks out - I get to enjoy my family and friends and recharge emotionally and financially for tour number two. Emotionally however, it still feels like I'm giving up. Giving up on the adventure.

But emotions be damned! I am a global man now! A trip back to New Zealand isn't a one way ticket! Even if I could only afford a one way ticket!

So there you have it - despite the love and excitement and the feeling I am just getting started, I have drawn a line in the sand for me to pack it up. I arrive home on the 27th of September.

On the upside, having this defined date is structuring my remaining UK tour better. With a definite end I have been able to budget my remaining time. In two weeks I will be leaving the Kallidus office and heading back to Wales to pick up where I left off.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my month or so here in Cirencester, working with such a lovely bunch of British friends. Yes I will call them friends, whether they see it that way or not. If I had come straight here in August last year things may have been very different indeed! But I didn't. And now I am more driven than ever to see what I can in the time I have foolishly constrained myself to.

Adventures around and about the region continue as I have been able to have them - more on those later. This is just a dull update post, with NO PICTURES. So if you skipped everything I wrote, you skipped it for nothing.