A Flacid Excuse
Ma'am,
That is a very weak excuse and you should call him on it... something you will hear in AA a lot is that sobriety absolutely has to be the number 1 priority in an A's life because without it they lose everything else... If going to meetings is essential for someone then they will get there come hell or high water, so making an excuse like 'I don't like reading the map' does not hold water... put another way, ask your A if, when he was drinking, and he needed to make it to the bottle shop before closing in a city he was unfamiliar with, if he would let the same excuse prevent him from getting his grog... I think you get the idea.
I know that the recovery community in NZ is a little less visible than in the US, but there are still plenty more meetings in NZ than there are in other parts of the world where people nonetheless get sober and stay sober. I personally know several Kiwis who live in the US who got sober in NZ and are leading plenty fulfilling lives now...
Hope that word of advice helps