Tuesday - We lay in as late as that tends to be these days…
about 8am and after breakfast we settled down for some admin.
We’d heard from Nick in New Zealand. How would Simon feel about a potential job on
offer just south of Auckland?! Talk
about a surprise! Basically, we would
need to return to NZ as visitors so that Simon could attend an interview to
find out the finer details. But it looked like there may be a job available
which Simon would have to commit to for two years, but afterwards would mean
that we could apply for residency. What
an opportunity! We would be able to visit all those places that we’d missed
through forever being rushed over the last month. But we needed to take time to
let the idea sink in and consider it seriously before making any quick
decisions.
Having created our rough Thailand itinerary, we also needed
to start booking planes, trains and even automobiles to make sure we stay on
schedule. We have secured two spots on a
liveaboard dive boat from 15th March so now we can book everything
else around that. I have seriously
underestimated the size of Thailand.
It’s big. I mean, really big. We
had a couple of choices between extremely long days and nights on overnight
trains, or purchasing the not-as-cheap-as-expected internal flights. We’ve gone for a bit of each, especially as
people have told us that the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is an
experience not to be missed in itself. 
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| Supping on a beer whilst soaking up the view |
We alternated a couple of hours on booking and admin with a
couple of hours by the pool until we felt that we had done sufficient of both
for one day.
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| A teeny hermit crab visitor |
We had dinner on the beach.
I completed my Thai curry traffic light by opting for a red curry, but it
reminded me that I am a wuss when it comes to chilies, so I may pass on the red
curries in future. I had to suck the ice
cubes out of my drink to cool my mouth down!
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| Dinner on the beach with unexpected entertainment |
Wednesday – We wandered along the beach to have breakfast
and have a discussion about the idea of living in New Zealand for two years. There were the considerations that everyone
must face when considering moving to the other side of the planet – missing
family and friends and probably some important events. But we both know that two
years can pass relatively quickly and we may be able to offer an opportunity
for people from the UK to come and explore NZ and have somewhere to stay.
Excitement for the future and discussions about logistics began. This is the kind of opportunity we had both hoped for when we broke away from our old lives. We could always turn down the offer but as we continue to haemorrhage our remaining money enjoying ourselves, it will not be long until returning to work will have to be a reality. So, will it be back to the Police in the UK or trying a completely different line of work in NZ, on our own, away from our support network in the UK? We will have to decide soon as March 22nd will come around quickly and we will need to know where we are heading on leaving Thailand. Will we have to go back to the UK first to dig out all of the paperwork that we may need for job and visa applications? That would cost a lot more than just heading back to New Zealand. I’m not sure we can stretch to that as things stand. But we’ll have to make a decision over the next week or so I guess.
Excitement for the future and discussions about logistics began. This is the kind of opportunity we had both hoped for when we broke away from our old lives. We could always turn down the offer but as we continue to haemorrhage our remaining money enjoying ourselves, it will not be long until returning to work will have to be a reality. So, will it be back to the Police in the UK or trying a completely different line of work in NZ, on our own, away from our support network in the UK? We will have to decide soon as March 22nd will come around quickly and we will need to know where we are heading on leaving Thailand. Will we have to go back to the UK first to dig out all of the paperwork that we may need for job and visa applications? That would cost a lot more than just heading back to New Zealand. I’m not sure we can stretch to that as things stand. But we’ll have to make a decision over the next week or so I guess.
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| Underwater snorkel-selfie |
It was also our last day on Phi Phi and we had decided to
take a kayak out to sample some of the snorkelling just off our beach. The tide was perfect this morning so we
coated ourselves in sun cream, grabbed the GoPro and headed to the shore. We took it in turns to either be on the kayak
or snorkelling as this solved the worries about having someone looking out for
passing boat traffic. The paddler was
responsible for having the snorkeler’s back! The visibility was amazing and
there was a lot of fish life around just like there had been the other day. We
sampled a couple of different areas of coral and a deeper drop-off section and got
some photographs, finishing with some more anemone fish as a highlight.
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| Colourful giant clams and a spiny sea urchin |
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| Beautiful reef |
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| Anemone fish |
Despite being cautious with the sun lotion, we had both
clearly had enough sun for one day after two hours out on the water so it was
time to do some hard relaxing in the shade for the rest of the day.
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