I HAVE been in New Zealand for the best part of a week and a half now and it is already pretty clear that I made the right choice in coming here.

Cricket-wise, I trained with Northern Districts on Tuesday and Wednesday last week and with Bay of Plenty on Thursday.

Then at the weekend, I played a club game and an Academy match for Bay of Plenty, which was ironically rained off after 11 overs. This week looks to be shaping up pretty much the same.

I am living five minutes away from my home ground for the next couple of months in Mount Maunganui, where there are some really good grass nets and an excellent high-performance gym.

I am two minutes from Tauranga city centre and close to the beach. All round, it's a great spot.

When I arrived last weekend, I was given a couple of options in terms of Saturday cricket by the chief executive at Bay of Plenty.

I have opted to play for the Tauranga Boys' College side. They are the local school here but they play league cricket in a similar way to the Yorkshire Academy.

They range from 15 to 19-year-olds and I preferred to do that so I could also help them out a bit and give them some pointers from what I've learned from other players over my career. I saw that as the best place for me to add some value.

I was pretty pleased to score 51 in my first innings since September on Saturday and I already feel a lot better about myself as a result of having slogged a few.

I faced 50 balls, had an hour at the crease, played quite aggressively and got myself into some decent positions.

If I can do the same this weekend, it will set me up well for the three-day stuff with Bay of Plenty, which starts later this month.

Being away from a more structured training programme at Headingley obviously puts an extra responsibility on myself to do the right things physically.

As I said earlier, the facilities are excellent here. Not only have I got use of the gym at the Bay Oval, also used by the Bay rugby team and Northern Districts, and a strength and conditioning coach, there is also a gym 60 seconds' walk from where I'm living.

New Zealand naturally lends itself to an outdoor lifestyle and eating well, so I will not have any issues in terms of fitness ahead of our summer.

I am playing or training five days a week at the moment, leaving me with a couple of days' down time. That's what I would have at home anyway.

I saw a decent chunk of England's first ODI against India on Sunday, be it live or through the highlights, and I wouldn't dwell on it too much if I were them.

Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav were exceptional but they have to take the positives from it, for me. If they keeping getting 350, they'll win a few games of cricket.

Yes, it's going to be tough to come back from in a such a short series, but if they can it will prove they are a real contender for that ICC Champions Trophy in the summer.

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