Kia Ora, Aotearoa

A New Home

New Zealand is my new home! I have family here and many good friends, so it was really only a matter of time. Flying from South Africa, through Hong Kong and landing in Auckland was a journey I'll never forget. New Zealand is a truly beautiful place—^[1] and the people within have a spirit to match. They are warm, humourous and genuinly open.

These moments always promote a self-assessment of sorts, like pruning an overgrown fruit tree—tying wayward branches upright and eliminating weaker branches to divert growth to the preferred ones.

What's next?

It's been many year's since I've had the space to journal online. I have quite a few posts I would like to write, and quite a few interviews I would like to publish. I am going to focus on expanding my software development and managerial skillset as well as exploring things in related and unrelated fields, while I find a good fit for my next long term role.

The people I have met so far in New Zealand are whip-smart; seemingly confident down to their bones. It's time to surround myself with people like this—and like a fruit tree, maybe get a little sun.

1. Unfortunately, The rise of LLM's and AI seems to have given the Em dash a “smell” of “AI slop”. I feel the need to emphasize that on this site, there is no generative AI. Every design element and punctuation mark is a deliberate choice, hand-placed by me. There is no: copy-paste; pre-made theme; plugins or shortcut packages. I don't even use smartypants to auto-convert my punctuation. Just me typing — every time. I view this site as my personal garden, and take more joy in cultivating it. The effort, in this regard, is the reward.