A little place out west

Chelfyn and I fell in love with a house yesterday. It's 5 minutes from the bush clad slopes of Titirangi, and near to the West Coast beaches of Karekare [where The Piano was filmed] and the famous surf of Piha. Now we've done the big house in the country thing it will be great to have a little place in West Auckland.

We'll be able to go for bush walks, or be on a surf beach within half an hour of home. After we put an offer in on the house we joined the millions worldwide to protest for peace. Two million in Rome, one million in London and millions more people across the globe showed that they don't want a war in Iraq. It was an amazing feeling being part of the biggest peace movement the world has ever seen.

The Meremere Drags

We put on a party called Bouncing off the Redline for the NZ Primera car club at the Meremere drags on Friday. Hundreds of boy and girl racers turned up in their big muscle cars to race along a quarter mile track. The air was thick with oil, burning rubber, and testosterone. I was invited to commentate as I 'do radio' but I was crap as I didn't know what any of the cars were.

It's worrying the amount of spotty teenagers in big V8 cars. You can start driving on a restricted license in New Zealand when you're only 15, and insurance isn't compulsory like in the UK. There is a huge car culture here that really contradicts their clean green image. If you drive down Auckland's Queen Street on a Saturday night you'll inevitably join the Boy Racer Parade. A slow stream of very loud cars, with rows of beanies in the back doing the Hip Hop Nod.

Happy with my little, as I don't need a lot
Chelfyn and I went to the Fricken Pool Party on Saturday. I had a fabulous time swimming in the sun. When we got there Phil Reynolds from Nukleuz was on the decks. You can always tell people fresh in from the UK, bright white skin next to Kiwi tans. February is the worst month to be in Britain - it's just dark, cold, and depressing. Here it's the height of summer and you won't see a cloud in the sky.

After the pool party we went for a drive round West Auckland to scope out where we want to live. After two weeks on the market, we've already accepted an offer on our house. I've been spending hours on the Open2view and Realenz websites checking places out. Shopping for houses here is fun as we can afford a 3 bed house with a garden for the price of a one bedroomed flat in the UK. Here it's easy to pretend that I'm a millionaire as I'm doing what I love, with time to spare. I'm happy with a 14 year old sportscar, and I know where the best Op Shops are...