Canberra, a planned city, but is it part of my plan ?

So grabaseat had one of those deals a while back. You know, the hard to resist ones. So we bought tickets. But this time we thought we'd go exploring somewhere different.

March rolled around and we flew to Sydney, picked up a rental car and drove to Canberra. Never been there before - apart from a whistle-stop detour once. But only to the outlet mall to get food and find restrooms on our way back from a tiki tour from Nowra.

We'd done a fair amount of research prior to this trip, places to eat, places to stay, places to visit, how to get around.

Canberra is young city, just 104 years old in the form it is now. The area has been inhabited by European settlers (some free some not) since the early 1800's. The city as it is was designed, a planned city. People rave on about the roundabouts - I didn't find them that confusing. What did surprise me was the size of the city, for a small city, with a small population as cities go, there is a lot of wide open spaces. The centres of Belconnen, Woden etc look fairly close on a map - and are when you consider the sprawling chaos that is Auckland. But actually getting there on ring roads, means driving through vast tracts of unpopulated or industrialised land. There are possibly more direct ways, but we didn't find them.

We loved the CBD, the inner suburbs of Kingston, Manuka, Barton, Forrest, Braddon, New Acton. The sunsets, and the ever changing vistas across the lake. The orderliness of it's being. Canberra is shaking off the mantle of boring city, filled with stuffy public servants and becoming quite hip. Great food places, cafes, food trucks, coffee, bars can be found all around. It isn't super crowded busy bustling city either. The pace of life seems very relaxed. It is filled with great attractions, museums, art galleries, libraries, zoo, parks, parliamentary life, memorials, an arboretum. It is driving distance to the ski fields in winter, the coast, wineries, markets. There are many cultural events as well to appeal to all spectrums.

I could live there, I would in fact, if I could get myself a job. Direct flights back to Wellington - just an added bonus.

We fluked being the week that Enlighten was on and also the beginning of the balloon festival. 

A time for reflection and planning

Remember when I was in Cardiff and I had an interview "try-out" to become a volunteer for the Rugby World Cup 2015 ? 

Well it is nearly time to learn whether I've made it to the next level. 10,000 people from 20 different countries have been interviewed and are all waiting, just like me to see what happens next. The successful 6,000 applicants will find out between January and March 2015. Exciting !

I wonder what adventures 2015 will bring. Will Christchurch really be my new permanent home ? Should I buy an investment property ? And if I do, where ? 

I so want to return to the UK and give it another shot. Will it be this year for the World Cup or just because, or will it take longer to get everything sorted again ? We've been looking at cruises with the idea of travelling through the States and Canada enroute. Sounds like a more relaxing way to do it, but more time consuming.  Would I go nuts stuck on a ship for that long, compared to being squeezed on a plane for 36 hours ?

Winning Lotto would solve all these dilemmas. Wouldn't it be great to have the freedom to be able to make decisions without risking our old age security ? I knew I should have gone back to the shops and bought a ticket today. How can I win if I don't participate ?

We're both still a bit grumpy because we are here and not there; because it is hot and not cold; because we didn't take the opportunities when we almost had things in our grasp; because we spent too much time in the UK and none in Europe; because we took too long to decide where we wanted to be and frittered away money.

But, there hasn't been much snow where we wanted to live, it's just been cold so maybe this wasn't the winter we were meant to be there after all.

In the meantime, I'm plotting and planning. Trying to find potential income earners that could help boost the coffers and researching how to set up a hobby business which could come into it's own on the other side of the world. 

I've just been and stood out on the front steps and watched the firework display in the centre of the city, ushering the old year out and the new one in. A year filled with promise and undiscovered potential.

Hope you all have a great year to come.

Another Adventure Begins - No Regrets

So, It's been a while. Mostly for the last month I have been alternating between wallowing in misery about making such a snap decision to end the dream, enjoying being home and seeing family and contemplating the fact that actually we are in almost the same state here as we were in the UK.

Still, we have made progress. I have accepted that I made a stupid decision. I am working on accepting that we had a great three months. I have set a goal to return and give it another go - once I have replenished my savings.

We decided to give Christchurch a go on our return. It is a city rebuilding after monumental upheaval, so it seemed a fitting place for us to begin to rebuild our lives too. It is almost four weeks since we arrived back into spring with blossoms on trees and new leaves and cute baby lambs frolicking in fields. I am missing autumn, and not really looking forward to summer, but spring is helping with the transition. The occasional wintery day breaks the monotony of blue sky and sunshine days and reminds us again that we have to wait six more long months to get to wear warm snuggly clothes. 

We have a car - a Rover which has been named "the moon buggy" to get us around the place. It will do for now, it doesn't have a CD player or an AUX outlet so that will have to be remedied soon and it has no drink holders which we didn't discover until we visited the US Embassy for Food the other day. Hmmm. 

The rental market in Christchurch is pretty fierce but we're a pretty determined couple of ladies and we have found a wonderful house to rent. It has an amazing garden with lemons, black currants, apples, strawberries, cherries, feijoas and veges so we won't be starving. It is also only 5 minutes from Lauren's new job. So just me to organise now. We move in this weekend and the truck will arrive from Wellington with boxes of belongings and furniture to unpack at the beginning of the week.

Apple Blossoms down the street

 Matai River Nelson

 Reject export peonies from the peony farm where Anne works

 A rose and an azalea in Mum and Dad's garden