As I sit here in my little apartment listening to Christmas
music, eating chocolate chip muffins and drinking coffee I realize how grateful
I am for my life in New Zealand. It's
amazing/crazy to think that we have already been here for 18 months. The first 8 months in NZ did not go as
planned, but it's cute how we even thought we had a plan. You think by now we would know better.
I'll start with a few things that didn't go as planned:
Justin had a hard
time finding work and didn't work the first 5 months we were here. Only after
temping for 2 1/2 months did I finally find a part time job. Our car was stolen
then was found 7 hours later by some cops who got a call that two 13 year olds
were doing doughnuts in a parking lot.
The inside was totally trashed, all of our beach gear that was in the
trunk had been emptied and it was almost all the way out of gas.
We were
scammed by our neighbor promising to give Justin a really good job collecting
repo vehicles among a few other things.
Turns out he was a convicted conman with over 100 counts of fraud! We lived next door to a man with a bit of a
drinking problem. While funny and sweet most days, he would sometimes yell and
cuss at us for hours when we wouldn't give him money for alcohol. Needless to say, some days we were really
questioning our move to New Zealand.
But around December of last year things started slowly
getting better. First of all we were able to celebrate our 10 year anniversary
on December the 10th!! Justin surprised
me with tickets to see Ed Sheeren. It was so much fun!!
Justin also started working for a bakery. Yes, I said bakery!! We were happy he finally
found a job. (Even though it was kind of
nice having a house husband who would do everything!) But with working at a bakery he had poor
working hours. He worked the night
shift and we would often switch places in bed.
I would crawl into bed at 10:30pm and he would be getting up to go to
work. Some days working almost 12 hour
shifts on his feet with very little breaks.
Needless to say it was very wearing on Justin's body, our social life
and our marriage. He would try to make me feel better about it by reminding me
that he's making lots of "dough".
It didn't help. haha The great
thing about working for the bakery is that we did get lots of free bread and Justin
met some really good people while working there. (He has since changed jobs but
we will get to that shortly.)
We also changed our housing location. We were grateful to have our old apartment. It welcomed us to New Zealand and was our
home for the first 8 months but it was just really worn down and sometimes gave
us more headache than comfort. So in March
Justin found us a really good deal on an apartment in a prime location. I'm reminded daily that I'm so fortunate to
be living in this spot! We were already living in one of the prettiest places
on the north island, but now we would be living in the place where a lot of
Kiwi's come for their summer vacation...Mount Maunganui. It was only about a 10 min drive from our old
apartment but it feels like worlds away.
With the new apartment came a roommate. We are not able to afford to live in this
area on our own. So we welcomed Will to the "family." He's a 23 year
old Ausi that we met through some mutual friends. He's a bad A barista so now we are coffee
snobs, thanks Will. He is a really good
flat mate, that is what they call them here, and also a good friend. We've
already been living all together for 9 months. Wow time sure does fly.
Our new apartment is great for so many reasons. We are
about a 3 min walk to the ocean in one direction and a 5 min walk to the bay in
another direction. We are close to so
many cool restaurants, coffee shops and a strand of cute little boutique shops.
With the summer weather approaching
there will be more and more to do around the area.
Justin quit working for the bakery back in June and has now
been working for Aqua Synergy Group, a water filtration company who deals with residential,
commercial and rural filtration. He now
drives around in a snazzy van all day doing sales, service and maintenance in
the whole Bay of Plenty area. It has its
ups and downs but it gives him more freedom and we have our social life back!
I've been working at a dental practice for over a year...it's
called Tooth Fairy Dental Centre, cute eh? Check us out here if you want. And no we don't wear fairy wings, thank
goodness, that would be a little too festive.
I've been working full time now for the last 9 months, so that is
helpful for surviving!! I've worked for
8 different dentists at this practice over the last year, so they are keeping
me on my mental game considering every dentist works a little bit differently
and you have to remember all those differences.
I have a lot of good co-workers and have been able to make some friends
while being there so it is nice. I also work for a great boss who was willing
to help me/us get our work visas. Our
visa's have now shifted from working holiday to a work visa through Tooth Fairy
and we are now able to stay and work until April of 2017 before having to
figure something else out.
We go back and forth with knowing what that something else
is. Do we stay longer in New
Zealand? If so, do we apply for
residency or just another work visa? Will they grant our visa request? If not, what is next? More traveling?? We've never been to South
America.... Or do we go home back to Texas!!??
"This is my wish for you: peace of mind, prosperity
through the year, happiness that multiplies, health for you and yours, fun
around every corner, energy to chase your dreams, and joy to fill your
holidays!" - D.M. Dellinger
Love and hugs sent to you from New Zealand!!
