I can’t believe I’m writing this post, especially since my last one (almost a year ago now) was written about our holiday in New Zealand! Kind of ironic really!

Well, I thought dust off this old blog a little and start writing again, especially to share our adventures in this beautiful country we get to call home, even if for just a little while.

Ok, so you’re probably wondering ‘what happened?!’, which a bunch of our family and friends’ reactions were initially too. Well, since our visit last year, we fell in love with the amazing scenery, friendly people and peacefulness of New Zealand. If you read my last post, we just couldn’t get over the breathtaking beauty around every corner. It’s also different enough to feel like you’re in a different country, but similar enough to Australia to make you feel at home.

Emile (husband) kept floating the idea of living here over the past few months, since it had easily became one of our favourite places on earth. I thought ‘no way’, because I’d just grown to love living in Canberra (we’d been living there for 2 years after moving from our childhood home of Tasmania). I loved being closer to family and the opportunities that living in a city like Canberra brought. I didn’t want to go back to living on ‘an island’ again where, as I’d felt detached from the rest of the world! But it had also always been our dream to live in another country, so I also had that little sense of adventure in me that said ‘what the heck, why not? It’s now or never!’. So the rest was history, so to say!

We packed our bags (literally, we only packed 2 suitcases each) and put our furniture into storage and arrived in New Zealand within 4 weeks. It was a crazy and emotional ride in the lead up to the move. The decision wasn’t easy, and we agonised over it right up until the day we left (probably more me than Emile).

For me, it was the thought that it might be forever and not being able to see my family as much as I’d like that totally freaked me out. I was just starting to settle into a new job after a rollercoaster few years to find the right role for me. But at the end of the day we had to make a choice and own it.

Emile had a weekend to decide whether he wanted to go forward with the new job. Monday morning rolled around and we still hadn’t decided! We finally came to a decision not to go, and he phoned the recruiter to say we won’t be taking it. We felt relieved in the moment for the decision-making aspect to be over, and then went to work. Within an hour of getting to the office, I called Emile and we both couldn’t shake the feeling that we made the wrong choice. The regret instantly hit us, which is when we knew we just had to do it, no matter how hard it might be. He called the recruiter back right away, and he was so understanding. Emile ended up getting through and taking the offer to work for a big supermarket company in their IT department.

I think at the end of the day, we just knew that the life experience will be so good for us. It’s always been a motto that I’ve lived by - no experience is bad experience. The experience might be bad, but you’ll always look back at how it strengthened you as a person and the lessons you learnt.

For now, we’re seeing it as a 1-year ‘working holiday’, keeping our options wide open. Right now, we have no idea where we’ll be in a year. We’re open to going back, and we’re open to staying. We’re just trying to keep a positive mindset and not shut ourselves off to what God has in store for us.

So, here we are. Settling in to life in Christchurch, New Zealand! I ended up staying on with my Australian company, working part-time remotely in communications. I’m enjoying the spare time to enjoy this beautiful city, and the ability to write and photograph again. Can’t wait to share our journey with you!

Thanks so much for reading.