CJ....

                    Above: My Family; Mum, Me, Alexander, Dad, and Tamati below - David and his fiance Claire weren't there.

Born in Calgary Canada.... may years ago. Seemed like the perfect place for a child to grow up. Skating rinks in any park, awesome snow ball fights with the neighbour's children... it was tough. Of course, it was also cold! Too cold for my mother who is a Kiwi through and through, and after 12 years in Canada, she had had enough. It was time to pack up the family and move back to "Godzone".

The Native Kiwi, from which the New Zealander's got the nick name "kiwi".

So, to New Zealand we came.... my parents, 3 younger brothers and 2 horses and a hot air balloon and myself.  What an adventure this was about to become. Quite an experience for us all, but unfortunately I was probably the one most effected by the move. For the first time in my life it wasn't just our immediate family that I had to deal with. Christmas was a huge affair with all of my mothers family being there - which meant a HUGE number of people being there, and my having to share my mother for the first time... I wasn't the nicest child around, and also not the happiest. Still, you live and learn, and now, I feel that I would be lost without my whanau. Feel quite sorry for anyone who doesn't have the huge family that I have been blessed with.

Me, Myself and I......     

Above:  Jacqui and I, on our first hitch hiking experience heading North; July 2000.