Made it home after a so-so flight. I had a hard time getting to sleep so ended up watching a few movies – The Woman King, Minari, The Pinkies Are Back (about a group of breast cancer survivors in New Zealand who are dragon boat racers) and Frocks and Divas (about an amazing biannual fashion festival in NZ called Tarnished Frocks and Divas where the models and dancers are all women over the age of 40). One of my favorite NZ singers, Annie Crummer, is one of the co-hosts, and they showed a clip of her singing See What Love Can Do, just one of the best songs ever. The 2 NZ films were both funny, fascinating, fabulous and uplifting.
Customs and baggage collection went surprisingly smoothly and I was out in plenty of time to catch the Airporter at 12:30, more than 4 1/2 hours before I left Wellington!
I am so so grateful for the time that I had in New Zealand. If this was the only benefit to quitting my job, it would have been well worth it. I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with Annemarie, both vacationing with her and just being part of her normal life, getting to see her work, meeting her roommates, hanging around with her, doing her normal routines, her cooking meals for us, taking me to some of her favorite places. That has been so wonderful and something that I haven’t done with my other kids because I live near them. So it’s been very special because it may be the only time I get to do this with her.
I have also been able to renew friendships with people that I haven’t seen in decades, and have gotten closer to them than I ever expected. With Mary, I’ve been able to participate in regular kiwi life stuff, going to concerts, an art auction, hiking, attending her weekly ukulele group sessions and swimming with friends, and just hanging out and talking. I felt so welcome and supported during my time here, especially when I unexpectedly got Covid. How different it would’ve turned out had I been somewhere else.
It’s been wonderful getting to reacquaint myself with New Zealand, learning more about it, seeing what life is like here now. I’ve had to learn to find my way around without a car at my disposal, which has been good, I’ve gotten more exercise, especially on the Wellington hills, and learned how to deal with all kinds of transportation – train, bus, ferry, shuttle, Uber, taxi and airplane.
I’ve met some fantastic people, read some great books about New Zealand, visited new places, learned more about the Maori culture, saw the changes that have occurred since I last lived here. I did some amazing hikes and explored areas that I’ve wanted to go to and revisited places I love.
I’ve had a different kind of solitude than at home because there weren’t a whole lot of people that I knew here, and when I was traveling on my own, it was just me. I found ways to really enjoy that solitude, reading books recommended by friends (that’s another great thing – finding other people who love to read as much as I do but are exposed to different authors), doing jigsaw puzzles, listening to instrumental music and audiobooks. I couldn’t go anywhere because of Covid so I had to slow down and accept that I had limitations and just let myself rest. Actually, so much of this time off, not just in New Zealand, but this whole time since I finished work, has been about letting myself rest and recover.