Two years in New Zealand, and you always take the weather with you!

This post is long overdue and to be honest, I’d almost forgotten I even had a blog. This is partly because life is so busy and full that I’ve stopped noting the significant, novel things about New Zealand, and just enjoy them in the moment. The other reason is that I was one of the unlucky Titirangi residents to catch the whooping cough doing the rounds in January 2011.

 The hills of Titirangi

Instead of sipping a glass of champagne to celebrate our milestone of two years in New Zealand on 24 January, I was swigging cough medicine. A lot of it.

And let me tell you, whooping cough isn’t called the 100-day cough for nothing. I didn’t just cough, but felt as though I had a fever for four months. Looking after two young children, trying to work and keep the house clean had to fit around long naps, or just periods of exhausted lying about for weeks on end.

Being a hard worker, this was an interesting experience of being forced, for the first time in my life, to stop the treadmill and convalesce. It's been a time for deep reflection. The result? I have walked away from the past few months with a new, exhilarating question playing around in my head: ‘What am I waiting for?’ 

 

Three years ago when we started the immigration process, we were tired of the waiting game, tired of hoping for change in South Africa. We grabbed the chance to make a new start in New Zealand and came bounding along full of enthusiasm. We had done it.

Along with this life-altering shift were a bunch of personal goals: I was going to join the Green Party in New Zealand, do art every week, get solar panels and an electric car, do yoga, dancing, surfing, the list went on and on. In a nutshell, I was going to do all the things I love and had put off for too long.

And did I?

Not really. Life took on its new routines, new demands and even new excuses. And there I was, playing the waiting game, or, as Dr Seuss calls it, living in the Waiting Place, where everyone seems to be waiting for something.

So yes, I’ve been better the past six weeks and have approached life with a flying tackle. From singing lessons with a fabulous voice coach, reading dozens of good books, to getting back into shape trudging up and down these Titirangi hills - I'm doing it.

Our hot water heat pump is being installed on Monday and by January we'll be powering it with solar panels.

Oh, and after 18 years of trying, I finally stood up on a surfboard.

Wooohooooo!