Searching in Secret New Zealand and Australia

Every New Zealander and Australian should read this eye-opening account of the journey of someone trying to settle down in their country.  Most of it will slip off your shoulders but some of it will stick in your heart and your mind. Read it if you are brave enough to look at things you don’t want to but should. 

If you are visiting, you might just want to relax and visit the sights; but be aware that this is the ground you will be standing on. If you just stray away from tourist sites, even for just a few days, you might see behind the good nature, the proud tough fronts of Kiwis and Aussies and experience the difficulties they face, which are unique to their history, the isolation, the terrain and the weather. 

If you are coming to stay, then read this because  seeing the beautiful and the ugly gives you balanced pictures of both countries’ multiple cultures . . .  so there will be no big surprises when you get here.

This amusing journey is tough and interesting because both countries are seen through the eyes of someone who is detached from the places he visits but not from the people he meets.  There is no stereotyping of Kiwis or Aussies; instead, he lays bare his own vulnerability with humour and an honest intimacy about living in the present.