Around the World in Eighty Years – Paperback

John’s story begins with joyful wonder through the eyes of a child. Then the reality of life’s challenges through adolescence: happy, sad, dangerous, but sometimes quite funny.

A shipboard romance with Susy, their London wedding, and their European escapades; John’s arrest by the Soviets in East Berlin, the joys of living in Spain, and then returning to New Zealand to start a family.

Then migration to Australia in 1980 with burning ambition, co-founding Somerset College, a real estate company, a failed ferry operation, and in 1992, IBS Global, now the world’s foremost passenger ferry brokerage.

Selling ferries meant 30 years of prolific world travel, dealing with fleet owners, governments, presidents, friends and villains. This is a book of enterprise, travel, romance, family love, friendships and philosophy.