The Far Side of the World, Pt 8

It's August 1975, and Tony Reavley's still in Auckland, seeing out the southern winter before heading off on his travels again. It's a time of great economic and political turmoil both in New Zealand and back home in Britain, but as long as Tony and Baz can still afford a few pints, all is not lost...

14-08-75

Auckland, NZ

On Sunday, our cunning Prime Minister, Mr Rowling, announced a 15% devaluation of the NZ dollar. The sneaky bastard did it on a Sunday morning. In effect, it means that Barrie and I have lost 15% of our savings when we leave. As I hope to have about $3000 when I leave, I shall lose a cool $450 which is about £270 at the old rate. We'll only get 51 pence for each dollar instead of 60 pence which means losing 3000 x 9p. Bloody annoying. Travellers entering NZ will benefit as they'll only pay 51 pence for a dollar now instead of 60p as before.

Congratulations on reaching one million unemployed! We've got about four thousand unemployed out here and the leader of the opposition, Mr Muldoon, has promised to cut immigration to five thousand a year. With a general election coming up in November, the battle's hotting up with plenty of mud being thrown, and a close contest between Labour and the opposition National is promised. Muldoon is distinctly anti-Pom so if he gets in I may be condemned to exile as I'd like to have the opportunity to return. Under Labour this should be possible but under National I'm not so sure. However, the lure of England in general and Tipton in particular should get me back this time next year as planned!

Did I tell you I'm no longer a common "garden labourer"? I am now known as a "mobile caretaker". I drive the council lorry and Barrie has to call me "sir". I had two men working with me who've now departed. Gary had just come out of jail for hitting a policeman on the head with a bottle, and Steve was permanently stoned and in a world of his own. Eventually, Gary left for a more lucrative job as a paint-sprayer and Steve got the sack for permanently tripping. I was glad to get rid of them as the two who took their places are much better; Jack from Bolton and Peter, a vegetarian Kiwi. We get on well together and get far more done than I did with the ex-con and the tripping hippie.

I'm managing to save around £25 a week and recently had a tax rebate of £105, so apart from the devaluation blow, finances are okay. Our petrol went up in the budget to $1 a gallon (about 52p), still cheaper than UK. Beer has gone up slightly but Baz and I got a crate in a few days before the price was due to go up. We still reckon it's the cheapest in the world. Did I tell you we now have two TV channels, TV1 and TV2. We watch occasionally but they're pretty poor. The Pommie imported programmes are popular. Currently showing are Upstairs Downstairs; Softly Softly; Colditz; The Ascent of Man; War & Peace; Coronation Street (1971 edition); Reg Varney; The Goodies; several more BBC serials and many more variety programmes, etc. I've been watching War & Peace and it's episode 20 this week, the final one, thank goodness!

Best wishes to all in Tipton,

Tony