PRELUDE
BOISE ~ Fitzy's Poverty Palace (Idaho, USA)
Trip Planning
TODAYS MILEAGE – 0 miles or 0 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 0 miles or 0 kilometres
Greetings & Salutations.
In reality, this is effectively Week 18 and Day 123 of my Where The Farq Is Fitzy trip, but seeing as its a different country I shall deem it Day 1 of WTFIF - NZ. 
I'm really looking forward to touching down in New Zealand. Every since I was a kid, a couple of factors have always perked my interest in spending time in the land of the Maori's.
My first taste of New Zealand was a school project (Traeger Park Primary) in which we could pick any country and make a presentation to the class. My project ran 30 pages with images, stories and history of the country. By comparison, out of 25 students in my class, 24 picked Australia as their country for the project. Wanna guess, that even back then, who was paddling their own boat and refusing to be part of the crowd???
One of my best mates "Rab" and his older brother "Skidders" step-father Hara is a native new Zealander and someone whom I've always respected and looked up to. At around 8 or 9 years old, when my own family situation was falling apart, Dad Hara and Mum Josie (as I call them to this day, as do a lot of people who've came in contact with them), would welcome me as I'd lob round to their house on Ashwin Street and knock around with Rab or Squeak and half the neighbourhoods’ kids until sun went down. The thing that impressed to me to this day, was that they were non-judgmental and very supportive and the overwhelming presence of family above all else.
The cool thing is that for a week while in Wellington, I'll be playing rugby again with the fellas who not only help shape my rugby career, but more importantly they also shaped me as a person - my mates from the Alice Springs Dingoes rugby union club. We'll be running around like excited teenagers, all bet it a whole lot slower, in the 16th World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival.
• CORINTH (Texas, USA) to AUCKLAND (Auckland, NZ)
via LOS ANGELES (California, USA)