●Why did Kyoji come to NZ

I arrived in New Zealand in November 2006 because I needed a new challenge.

I worked at a travel agency for about 8 years in Osaka, Japan. My main duties were planning inbound and oversea tours, and also, updating the tour information on our website for customers.
I liked my job. However, the company was not making a profit. So, our department was closed and the employees were made redundant.
I looked for another job. But I had dreamt of going around the world for about 3 years. My wife Takako had also wanted to go travelling around the world as well.
So, we decided to travel. Eight months later we were standing in KANSAI airport wating to board the plane to Beijing, China. That day was 27th May 2005.

Travelling the world was one of the best times in my life. I saw beautiful scenery, I ate the famous dishes from each country, I met many people everywhere I went. Everyday was so exciting. But, then something terrible happened.
On the 9th November 2005, 5 months after we started, we were traveling in Nice in the south of France. Our car was broken into and our important stuff including our money, cameras, PC etc was stolen so we had to go back to Japan to reorganise our travel.
Our families in Japan said that we were so silly and we should stop travelling. But, we did not want to give our adventure up because this trip was our dream and now our challenge in life.

3 months later we were on our way to South Africa, the 17th country in our travels. Finally, we had visited 48 countries before arriving in New Zealand.
Now, we are working in New zealand and we would like to share our travel experiences including both good and bad with Japanese people on our website(www.sekatabi.com/english) .
We don’t have any new plans now. Maybe in the future, we will go somewhere to complete our travel.