Peter – Thailand
“My name’s Peter. Currently I live in Thailand. I’m back in Auckland to see family and friends.
If I could say something to my, 11 year old self it would be appreciate the here and now – appreciate the surroundings of this city – of Auckland City – of New Zealand. Just appreciate what we’ve got, because a lot of people around the world don’t have our environment, our community, our culture. I was born in England, came over to New Zealand when I was nine – spent about 17 years over here, and then shot off to Australia for a few years then went to Thailand. Been in Thailand for just over five years now, and back in New Zealand for a holiday. I brought my wife over here to see what it’s all about – to see the rest of our family.
We’ve got a kid on the way, so our plan is definitely to raise our children in New Zealand because it’s a great place. There’s some bad places as well but in general it’s pretty good – (it has) good communities, good police work, it is safe and especially our roads as well, if I can put it in comparison to especially where I live now, people are a lot friendlier and you can have a conversation with anyone on the road. The road safety is amazing. Just a higher standard.
Me and my work colleagues used to go and play squash after work, and I ended up playing squash with (my wife) a couple of times and it progressed from there, and here we are today; got married last year, got a baby on the way this year. It’s great, I’m choosing Auckland because I was raised in Auckland. I know Auckland. Our family’s in Auckland. Work is obviously a big thing – work’s in Auckland.
Well, the last time I came over here my brothers first baby was a little baby, and now he’s two and a half years old, and he’s got another kid, and the first – I only got here on Friday, so today’s Monday – just driving down the road, bumped into two old friends. They’ve both got kids. Went down to Papamoa and The Mount in the weekend; my mates who live down there walked into a cafe, grabbed me. They were there with their kids. So I’m ready – I’m excited. We’re ready – we’re excited. It’s a whole new life, so yeah bring it on.”
