Roll up, roll up! For one week and one week only I'm entering the blogosphere to record my experiences at New Zealand's Waikato Pathways College (part of Waikato University) in Hamilton and at Victoria University, Wellington (VUW). After over a month of travelling and relaxing (and being bitten by sandflies) in both the North and South Islands it's time to switch back into work mode!

I'm being hosted for three days by Professor Brian Findsen, Director of Waikato Pathways College, and will be meeting with Jenny Barclay, Director, Continuing Education and Executive Development at VUW, then giving a seminar at VUW's Staff Development Centre on Friday.

Along the way, my hope is that as well as observing the policies and practice of progression and lifelong learning in these two institutions, I will also be able to reflect on the UK context and elements of my own work at UWE and with the Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network.

So here we go - starting off in Hamilton in the early morning on Monday 25 January (a temperature of 25 degrees is promised today) - I'm meeting Brian at 9.30 in his office at the University. Hamilton has been variously described as the city of the future and the armpit of NZ....! The latter seems unkind - although the city has a vast and ugly light industrial/commercial belt on its outskirts, the city centre is low-rise and spacious and graced by the wide and fast flowing Waikato River at its heart.

I'll find out more about Hamilton's population, the work of the Pathways College and also the current cuts and pressures in higher education spending in NZ later today.