Moving On…

Eventually a time comes to start making some changes and move on to new things. For me that time has finally arrived and I shall shortly be saying goodbye to Dunedin, the place that I have called home for the last 3+ years, and moving to Hamilton in the North Island of New Zealand.

Jacqui will be graduating shortly and has a placement at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton and has just moved up there so it just makes sense to take the plunge and move up there with her. In one way it could look to be quite scary but in another it just kind of fits and will work out really well in the long run. The original plan was to slowly start looking for work and then to move up when I finally found a job, however in this instance the job searching ended up going much quicker than it did when I first got to NZ and I ended up with a couple of offers pretty quickly and a request for a pre-xmas start. Not what I was expecing but I plan on rolling with the punches as they say and going for it.

Right now the plan on the move is still a little fluid with us taking the “Make everything up as we go along” approach that we (for some reason) have a great feeling about. The plan is basically to stay in Air BnB accomodation in Hamilton while we search for a cool flat / apartment close to the city centre to allow us to both possibly walk to work to avoid needing to get an additional vehicle just for the sake of commuting.  Jacquis parents have been kind enough to offer to store our stuff in the meantime while we are looking so we can get that all shipped up from Dunedin and stored 45 mins outside Hamilton, ready for when we finally find the perfect flat.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this (and forgetting to publish it!) We have now found a flat that we will move into at the end of the year so the Air BnB plan in the same but no flat hunting required. We can also get our stuff delivered directly to the new flat so that works out in our favour too.

Right now I am sort of in limbo with loads to do to get everything packed but still too much time until I need to get it done that there is no point in starting now. I have lists and lists of things to sort but none of them for a few weeks which has left me with a bizzar feeling of being both busy and free at the same time.

On Thursday last week we set off and drove the 19hrs from Dunedin to Jacquis parents in Matamata to take her car and some of her stuff up there before I flew back down to get finished up at work and get the house sorted. The plan is for Jacqui to come back down with her parents for her graduation and us all to fly up after that for the new life and new job.

For the last few weeks that I have in Dunedin I am trying to get as much done as possible and see all of the sights that ive not managed to squeeze in. I feel lucky enough that I have managed to have some great weekends away in the local area and dont think I’ve let too much pass me by while ive been down here.

Im really looking forwards to getting to Waikato and starting to explore and travel since Ive only spent about 3 weeks on the North Island in the 3.5yrs that ive been here! Sounds crazy when I think about it like that but at least I know the south pretty well now. So many more places to see and adventures to have.

Cant wait!