The last few days have been a huge blur of many emotions. Mainly in my case: denial. We've left Kaikoura - our home for the last 2 years, and have suddenly found ourselves once again living in a small van. Although we booked this and had a leaving date set a long time ago, I was definitely not prepared both emotionally AND practically. For example: I knew we were moving out of a house with electricity and into a vehicle without electricity yet I didn't charge any of my devices. This lead to a very long 3 and a half hour ferry trip across the Cook Strait without a book to read (paper books 1 kindle 0. Real books don't need charging. Sigh)
I thought I'd write a post about what we're up to as I've had a few confused messages from friends wondering what's going on with us. My whirlwind trip to the U.K didn't help this confusion either so I'm setting the record straight here.
We've exhausted our visa options in NZ without getting a job that would sponsor us to stay in the country, then eventually apply for residency. If we'd seriously considered this we could have found a way to go down this route, but friends and family are calling us home for the time being. This means we have to leave NZ at the end of September.
Not wanting to come home quite yet we decided to prolong our journey and make the most of being on this side of the planet so we're doing a bit of traveling en route back home. Our first stop is Niue- a Pacific island a 3 hour flight north of Auckland, and interestingly just on the other side of the International date line. So we actually travel back in TIME to get there. Niue also means 'behold the coconut' in Niuean so I hope you're all ready for a lot of photos of me eating all the coconuts. There are only two flights a week that go to Niue and the only airport you can fly from to get there is Auckland. So we've picked up a campervan that needs relocating from Christchurch to Auckland and are making our way up there over the next few days.
Our campervan is rubbish by the way. It looks like our beloved Luke from the outside but the layout is terrible and it's really cramped. The bed is way smaller than Luke's was yet it somehow manages to take up the entire van so there's no room to stand or put bags or do anything other than sit hunched on the bed. Good job it's free to relocate campers! I'd upload a photo but for some reason I can't add pics to blog posts from my phone. Cheers blogspot.
So back to Niue. We're hoping we've got there while the humpbacks are still hanging around with their babies before migrating back down South again. We've booked a whale swim tour for the second day we're there to give us the best chance of seeing them. The water there is famously clear as the island has no beaches or rivers so the visibility is incredible. There's other cool wildlife there too like Spinner Dolphins, sea snakes and coconut crabs. It's going to hopefully be an amazing 10 days filled with heaps of snorkelling, yummy food and a bit of relaxation after a crazy few weeks.
After Niue the plans are still a bit vague but we've booked flights to Sydney and are trying to get another camper relocation deal so we can drive south and hop over to Tasmania. After Aus then the plan is to visit a couple of South East Asian countries (not booked yet but will happen very soon) before heading home for Christmas.
Then we can begin panicking that we are homeless and jobless with no idea where we want to live - YAY!!
I'm not super excited to go home at the moment and each day hope that some inspiration will hit me and I'll suddenly know what I want to do with my life. It'll happen any day now. RIGHT??!! I'm trying not to think about it too much so I can just enjoy the now and this exciting part of the adventure but 2019 keeps looming at me out of the darkness no matter how hard I try and push it back.
I know we'll be absolutely fine but anxiety isn't one for thinking logically and there's a little voice in the back of my head whispering that I should be married with a mortgage and a dog and stable job by now because I'm THIRTY and that's what THIRTY YEAR OLDS do even though I really am very ok without those things at the moment.
Apart from the dog.
Anyway watch this space for updates on our travels and hopefully a few pics. Kaikoura friends: I miss you already. U.K friends: I can't wait to see you. But for now adventure is calling again!
