The Opening Act

Here in the southern hemisphere, we are starting to make the transition between summer and fall. The nights have grown cooler and the sun sets earlier;  you need a warmer sweater for a nighttime walk with the dog; and it suddenly has become that much harder to climb out of a warm bed in the morning (especially when you’re the only one going to work). Autumn is knocking at our doorstep.  A New Zealand fall is an entirely unique experience for us in several ways. Growing up surrounded by the yellow, red and orange notes of fall in Northern Ontario, I have just realized how the change in colour of a single leaf has become so important to my seasonal mindset. Without those glorious colours, fall seems just like a colder version of summer, occurring in months that are, in my mind, supposed to be spring. But I suppose it was all inevitable, we have been basking in the sun since November, just when we were supposed to be slipping into the depths of winter. Summer was not going to last forever.

While the seasons change outside, our tide seems to be following suite. Having finally made to the end of our relocation marathon, we have now come to the task of painting our new life on a fresh blank canvas.

The first stroke was painted three weeks ago when I returned to the world of work. After three months off, I found myself ready and motivated to start my new job. Returning to work this month has triggered me into realizing just how tired and stressed I was in the past year prior to leaving Canada. It has felt so refreshing to enjoy my work again and to feel focused and fulfilled by it each day. The clinic is small and busy, and the patient population is a mixed bag of sports/gardening injuries, spinal injuries and general orthopedics. The population here is generally active, healthy,  and have a friendly nature that makes them fun to treat. Almost daily I have a new patient tell me about their travels or love of all things Canada, which makes me feel close to home, and proud  to be Canadian. One of my patients came to her appointment the other day wearing her Canadian souvenir t-shirt. She then told me that she had built her own Inuksuk in her garden after being inspired by them on a recent trip to Vancouver.  Another patient proudly told me that fifteen years ago he and his wife had bought a $99 Greyhound bus ticket that had allowed them to travel across Canada. They didn’t waste a cent, as they travelled from Vancouver to Halifax over the next three months, stopping to meet countless canucks along the way.

  It seems that there is a lot of kiwi love for Canada.  

My patients have also been teaching me a lot about local geography and local slang. Each day I seem to come home with a new addition to my kiwi vocabulary which has included, but is not limited to the following:

“Sweet as”
that’s it, nothing follows it, something is just “sweet as”. Used in a sentence this might sound like this.  “This this beer is sweet as”

“Good as gold”
This is one of my favourites; it seems that whether I am telling my patients how many reps of an exercise to do, or their surgical prognosis, this still seems to be the answer.

“Sticks”
Kiwi speak for cane(s), I’m still trying my best to use this one with my elderly patients.

“Full on”
This is somewhere between intense and serious or exciting. Put in a sentence would sound like this:
“That rugby match was full on”

“Fine”
This one still gets me. Calling nice weather something as simple as fine seems like an insult. But I guess it’s better than using ugly words windy, rainy and cold. I have started to embrace fine days.

As you can see, going back to work has not only been fruitful for my wallet, but also for my language development.

As the days started to pass, and our routine has started to develop. I go to work and the gym, and Trent stays behind, and lives life as a stay at home dad with his four legged daughter. Together they seem to live a busy existence of beachcombing, going to the gym, doing laundry, buying groceries, cooking, talking politics, watching sports, collecting seashells, and sorting out household issues. They also have the occasional nap. On the weekends we walk to the Paraparaumu Beach Farmers Market and buy veggies, bread and coffee; go for walks in Queen Elizabeth Park, a network of hiking trails; sample local New Zealand wine, and generally enjoy some time together.

Trent in Queen Elizabeth Park

Two weekends past, we found ourselves waking up bright and early on Sunday morning to a very familiar feeling. It was race day. For those of you who don’t know, training and competing for half and full marathons have been something Trent and I have done together for the past two years. After being a spectator during my third marathon in Ottawa in 2009, Trent stated that he would like to run a half marathon one day. My answer was, “so do it”. It was sometime after this moment that my newest running partner was born. And “do it” he has. Trent has gone on to compete with me in two full marathons, and a handful of half marathons in in Canada and the US since.  Last Sunday morning we were off to add a new checkpoint to our running map. The AMI Round the Bays Half Marathon was to be our first road race in New Zealand.

Being that the race was held in Wellington and was designed to literally run around the two bays that make up the local waterfront, we were expecting this race to be windy and most likely a bit cold. We could not have been more off the mark. It turns out that the weather gods had blessed us with an amazing day of sunshine, warmth, and gentle winds to run a beautiful race course along the edge of the South Pacific. For me, this race was meaningful in many ways; it was the first race we had competed in in New Zealand, and it was the first race I had ran since May 2011, after incurring a ligamentous injury to my right knee in September. After a long rehab which seeped into my three month vacation, it was a great feeling to pick up my race bib and step onto the start line surrounded by thousands of other racers.  It was a great race for both of us, coming across the line at 1:55 (Heather) and 1:54 (Trent), no personal bests, but no personal worsts either. J It was nice to be back.

At the start line AMI Round the Bays Half Marathon

The next few strokes of paint on our canvas were even more significant. We had finally found a long term home! Or, as long term as you can consider a six month contract. For us, at this point, six months seems like an eternity. Since leaving Canada in late November, Trent and I have not stayed in any one location for longer than six weeks. We were becoming travelling gypsies. It was time to settle down and enjoy the feeling of home again.

Huff and I at our new house!

Our new home is located about a 10 minute walk away from our previous place. Walking from our old place to the new one, you walk towards the ocean, which means our new home is on the street that runs parallel to the beach. We are renting a house that is owned by a family who only uses it during the summer. It is a really cute two bedroom beach style home, with a beautiful garden and back patio. Clean, homey and with some really cute accents, we couldn’t be happier to be in a place that feels warm and comfortable.  There are several wine glasses in the cupboard, an array of food magazines on the coffee table, a full set up of pots and pans in the kitchen, and a lime tree in the garden.  I think we would be good friends with the people who own this place.

View of the kitchen :)

Huff checks out the back yard

Huff continues to enjoy her new surroundings, the freedom of her new backyard, and the proximity to the off leash oasis of the beach. She has started to make some new friends on her daily walks, and we think she may have a new boyfriend (don’t tell Deacon!). After experiencing some separation anxiety during the first week that she was home from quarantine, she has settled into her New Zealand routine nicely. She seems to be braver and a lot less timid on the other end of her travel experience, which has allowed us to bring her to places we would have never dared to before, like to the farmers market and an outdoor patio of a café. She loves the open freedom of having her own backyard that she can move in and out of the house from at her own leisure, without having to be taken out by one of us on a leash. This has meant that she now has a daily ritual of leaving the house promptly after dinner in order to stretch and roll around in the grass. She says it helps her to digest. We cannot imagine what life would be like here without her daily antics, and are grateful each day that we decided to bring her along for the ride.

Huff and her new beau

As the leaves of my seasonal mindset have started to turn from green to red, I begin to digest t the reality of the great adventure we have embarked on. Sometimes I look at our life and feel like I am watching it all on film in an air of disbelief that we are really here, living the life the way we had dreamed. It feels like that first September day when you look up to see the amazing theatrical display of fall colours that summer had been keeping behind its curtain of green.  After months of peaking behind the curtain at a life in New Zealand, we were finally on the playbill.

The reviews are fantastic.