Settling in

It’s been about a month now since we loaded our Tacoma with bikes and bags, said goodbye to our kitties, and drove to the airport for our greatest adventure yet - a move to New Zealand.  We had always planned a year abroad with the kids, and have brainstormed lots of versions of how that might look.  With the political and economic climate of the USA, we decided to set up a possibility for a longer term future and headed for the land of outdoor fun - New Zealand! Nothing distills your priorities in life quite like packing for a journey like this. We shipped some of our most prized possessions which as it turns out are mostly adventure toys - camping gear, helmets, ski boots, climbing gear, wetsuits, and tucked some clothes in there as well. We packed up some clothes and boxed up our bikes to fly with us, and off we went!

The days have been long, figuratively and literally.  We left the short days of winter and arrived to the longer days of summer, which here in New Zealand oscillate between sunny, hot, and humid, to drenching downpours, also hot and humid, to cooler drizzly days. Setting up life here has been a task and I’ll write more about those experiences in later posts.

First priority when we landed (other than some boring adulting like immigration medicals, getting the keys to our rental, and buying a ute…) was to put the bikes together and get riding.  Nothing stokes the stoke like some outdoor adventures, so sure enough before we even got a couch or dishes, we built the bikes and headed to the famed Rotorua for a day of biking. WOW! MUST come back. Thankfully, it’s only an hour from where we’ll be living.

Our first week was filled with exploring skate parks (every tiny town has one), pump tracks (ditto), school tours, and generally getting ready for life to begin in earnest next week with kids heading off to school.