Sorry it has been a long time since I last wrote a bit of an update. There are of course all of the same old excuses of being busy, work and holidays, but none of them can really be considered acceptable reasons to be so slack with keeping you up to date.
It is coming up to three years since we left Australia and headed across to New Zealand for a change of scenery and a bit of an adventure. And the adventure continues. Time has moved along at a pace that it hard to distinguish a difference between when we left Australia and what I did last week. It all seems to have blurred in to one. Maybe this is a sign of the adventure we are on, or maybe it is a sign of getting older. Either way, it feels good.
We moved to a new house earlier this year. The little cottage we were living in was the original family home of our landlord, and she wanted to move back in after a relationship break-up. There was no hurry for us to move so we took our time to search for the next great house to make our home. We found one in April and moved what little we had with no fuss. The new house is bigger, much newer and warmer so there were some nice changes. It is also closer a tiny settlement which has a store and a great coffee shop (the only two buildings in the village) which we can walk to for any last minute supplies or a coffee in the sun on our days off. It is also closer to the coastal town of Raglan, our most loved corner of New Zealand. We did sell our cows though, which was a bit sad to see them go. They all went to the same hobby farm somewhere near Auckland so I am sure they are happy. The yard is bigger so more room for the dogs to run around and the view looks right out into the landscape compared to our last house which was nestled in a bit of a valley. So, all up, it has been a good change in scenery.
We have been travelling around as much as time permits. We spend a little over a week in Vanuatu in April. We have gone out to a Pacific Island each year we have been here and so we hope to get to Tahiti next time. We also travelled around the east coast of the north island which was the last of the regions in New Zealand that we had not yet conquered. Can cross that one off the list now. The most recent big trip ended just yesterday, after a week-long skiing/snowboarding trip to the South Island staying in Queenstown and Wanaka. It was sunny the entire time so the skiing was great, although very bright, and school holidays had just finished so the place was relatively stress free. Wanaka has been a favourite place ever since visiting there on our first trip to NZ and it has proved yet again why. It was so peaceful and serene. In many ways it reminded me of when I was living in Norway with the steep glacier formed valleys and countless waterfalls tumbling from the slopes. Our next trip is already booked and that will again be to the South Island but we will go out to some of the islands that have become refuges for NZ’s rarest of birds as well as a visit to the sounds in Fiordland
Work is going well. I am currently the acting Team Leader of Mammals which is a long way from what I thought I would get to do over here. My boss is away on a long holiday and I got nominated to take on the role until she returns. I have been filling in for her on her days off but nothing for as long as this. What were they thinking, eh? It is a good way to learn a lot very quickly and a small part of me will be disappointed when she returns. There is an opportunity looming to become a team leader in the next few months, but there are so many other things to consider. Like I started off saying, it has been three years and I find myself thinking of home more and more. As for Phil, he is also growing a developing himself. Apart from doing a lot of tiger training and becoming a primary keeper of the carnivore section, he is also one of the heads of the design team involved with building a new gibbon exhibit and modifying the tiger exhibit to accommodate more tigers. Our year way from Australia to learn a few more tricks is really paying off for both of us.
The dogs are all good. I am sure Flinders misses having goats to chase like he did in Australia, but we take them to the beach often and walking around the country roads around the house. There is one goat down the road which likes to chase the dogs if they get too close, so that is their ‘fix’ of herding animals. We also left our chooks at the previous house, so it’s just us and the dogs now. A far cry from the days of our farm at Rockleigh back in Oz with all the goats, chooks, peacocks, pigeons, frogs, snakes, geese, emus, fish, guinea fowl and everything else. I miss having lots of animals around us at home, but we really don’t spend as much time here as we did back in Oz. Our days off are often used up going places and walking or skiing or just taking the dogs to the beach. We wouldn’t have time to appreciate or properly care for anything else these days. It will probably change upon our return to Australia although it has been good not having to organise someone to feed a hoard of critters when we go away.
As always, if you want to know more, I am still maintaining my blog that I started when I left Australia although I don’t update it as much as I would like. It is now being archived by the National Library of Australia as material which they said was of national significance. I’m not so sure about that, but just glad to hear that someone is reading it.
On this past holiday I promised I would try to write to family and friends more often so I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and rest assured that I think of everyone often.
Hugs from Aoteroa
John
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