Maths teacher David Munro comes to us from South Auckland after teaching Year 7 at a composite primary school there.

Before that he taught for two years in North London. He says that teaching in the UK was something “different”, especially the year he spent teaching at a Jewish primary school.

One of only two non-Jewish teachers at the school and without much prior knowledge of Judaism, Mr Munro says it was very interesting learning about the history, religion and traditions, including those relating to not doing any “creationist tasks” on the Sabbath (the holy day).

“So we’d get to this camp about an hour before sundown and you’d have this frantic time where you would run around and turn all the lights on and those lights would be on for the next 24 hours,” he said.

Secondary teaching is a new stage of Mr Munro’s career. “I’ve gone from learning 30 names and being with those children five hours a day to learning 150 names and being with them three or four hours a week.”

“I’m really enjoying it. You get to meet so many more students and the great thing is when you’re walking down the driveway there are so many faces that know you and want to talk to you as well.”

Mr Munro “loves” statistics. “[It’s] an area that I’ve always found to be truly fascinating in that you’re often learning about people and you’re making generalisations about people and from all of this chaos, from all of this data, you’re able to find a consistent relationship.”

Sports enthusiast David Munro loves Nelson: the easy traffic, outdoor activities and the friendly people. “I think Nelsonians have got that work-life balance down-pat, a lot better than people from Auckland (...) or other cities.”

Mr Munro and his wife Emma met in the UK and are both passionate about travelling. The couple had a goal to try and visit 50 countries before they turned 30, one which they managed to achieve.

Travel highlights for Mr Munro include former Eastern Bloc countries, Bosnia in particular. He’s also visited Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and a host of other interesting destinations. On their future travel wishlist are Iran and Georgia.

Since returning to Aotearoa they’ve made a point of seeing as much of their own country as they can, the North Island as well as the South.