Quitting the Welfare State

The book began to be put into written form only after the author had been cajoled into doing it by a few of his colleagues who were constantly hearing the many stories of the crazy things that happened during his journey from New Zealand when traveling overland through Central and South America which took six months in 1956 and to end up in Brazil penniless. The crazy stories however still continued to flow after he had landed a job with a British company as project engineer on the construction of a large irrigation dam being undertaken by the Brazilian Government in the interior of the North-Eastern State of Ceará. They still kept coming during his four year term with the company which took him all over Brazil and afterwards when he went out on his own in the construction and engineering business in a partnership which he eventually had to sever. However, once deciding to put pen to paper he realized that he could not commence one third through the story, he had to go right back to the day he was born and his early childhood when a traumatic event occurred in his family which he realized in later life which definitely had its effect on his inner being and mental approach to life. It left him with a feeling which without knowing it, he was on his own from that moment and would have to fend for himself. The date of his birth happened to be Friday the 13th. Which some folk looked upon as unlucky but he thought the opposite. The story briefly covers his first quarter century, educating himself through university to graduate in civil engineering only to realize that he was living in a totally socialistic state which had evolved as New Zealand began climbing out of the Great Depression. He could not see any future working as a civil servant for the next forty years with no real challenges to contend with. He decided to quit New Zealand and the welfare state and head to where no Kiwi had ever been,- Central and South America. When he mentioned ?Brazil? to a few of his colleagues he was told that he would either end up having his head shrunken by Amazon Indians or be swallowed up by an anaconda. He decided to take the risk. He walked across the border from Uruguay into Brazil in November, 1956 and eventually arrived in the city of São Paulo with not a penny in his pocket. It was not Friday the 13th. but it could have been as within two weeks he was employed by a British engineering company who was seeking an engineer to managed a contract they had just landed and the Canadian engineer they had contracted had taken one look at the place, only to catch the next plane home. To be thrown into such a responsibility at the age of 27 and not knowing the language or the people he was to work with was probably the challenge he was looking for,- but was he up to it? The engineering experience he gained during the next four years way outweighed anything he had learnt at university or would have working for the Ministry of Works in NZ. His partnership with a Canadian engineer never worked out and after several years he was forced to sever the relationship to start all over again. From there on he enjoyed considerable success engaged in projects throughout both Central and South America as well as other countries.and became associated with several UK companies as a director of their operations in Brazil. He never lost contact with his country of birth and in fact as the only Kiwi with a business background in Brazil he was continually being requested for assistance from both the NZ Government and NZ companies in their endeavours to establish business and trading opportunities. His connection with New Zealand finally lead to him being appointed the first ever Honorary Consul and later Consul General of his home country, the tenure of which he retained for a period of fifteen years. He relates many weird stories during this period.