Posts tagged travel
Goodbye 2017
2017 was a year of re-establishing a NZ based life, of consolidation rather than exploration. Our 2016/17 summer of the outdoors reconnected us with the power of love and the beauty of our homeland. We settled in Auckland, drawn there by work, to a life full of opportunities for exploration of new landscapes and different geology.
Our priorities remain the same: family, health, worthwhile work and travel. Since we defined those priorities more clearly for ourselves back in 2011, we have got better at matching our practice with our intention.
Our choice to return to a NZ base was confirmed by the great pleasure we have had from time spent with family and friends. It is so much easier to see them from an Auckland base, and to be more easily in touch by skype or phone when we are in the same time zone. Moira was able to catch up with her UK, Swiss and Californian relatives in brief visits this year. We were delighted to spend longer with Rebecca who joined us for our cycle touring expedition in the Alsace/Lorraine region of France.
Healthwise, we continued our active lifestyle with lots of walking and cycling in Auckland and further afield. Mt Eden became “our mountain” through our evening peregrinations around or over it’s volcanic cone from our little apartment on its flank. Auckland has excellent cycle paths which we have enjoyed exploring, although it can be challenging getting to them as Auckland drivers are notoriously impatient. After our years of living overseas, Ross took advantage of NZ’s health system to have a hernia dealt to.
Moira undertook one parliamentary consulting role in the Parliament of Moldova, her first in Europe and an eye-opening experience to work in a former Soviet country. Her main work this year has been as Library Director at Unitec, the largest of NZ’s polytechnics. The student demographic is very different from a university, with almost half the students speaking English as their second language, while a third of the students are first in family to study at a tertiary institution. Education has the potential to make a real difference to their lives, enabling them to find more satisfying work or to advance in their chosen careers.
Although 2017 was a year with less travel than previous years, we holidayed in the UK, France and Switzerland in July/August when we went to Europe to see family and attend Ollie and Fern’s wedding in lovely Cornwall. It was such a pleasure to meet up with parliamentary friends, last seen in Myanmar. We really enjoy exploring Auckland’s 50 volcanoes and multitude of islands. Nothing we like better than to take our bikes on a ferry to explore somewhere new.
Goodbye 2017, we liked you!
World Wanderers
We are often asked about what the drivers were for our choices about the way we live.
Back in 2011 when we began our journey to a nicer life we focused on:
• Relationships with family and friends
• Improving our health through increased fitness and reduced stress
• Meaningful, worthwhile, challenging work whether or not it paid well
• Travel to interesting places
We began to live in a much smaller space, and to concentrate more on experiences and a whole lot less on material possessions. We worked together a lot of the time, and undertook a range of assignments in NZ and abroad because they interested us.
Five years later, the key focus areas have remained the same for us. We have refined our travel goals, and choose to travel more slowly most of the time -cycling or walking so that we interact with the locals and absorb more of the smells, sounds, and sights around us. We tend to return more often to the countries we love and explore new regions.
A key driver for us arose from family and friends who had died or contracted serious illnesses before their time. We worried about running out of health before we ran out of money, and not having enough energy to enjoy any retirement years together. We wanted to ensure that we did the active travelling while we were able to really enjoy it. We had always dreamed of living and working in another country to learn more deeply about another culture.
In the past 5 years we have lived and worked in Christchurch, Myanmar and Yorkshire in the UK. We have travelled to many parts of New Zealand, Lebanon, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Scotland & London, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Vietnam, UK, California, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, India, Malaysia, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Namibia, Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malta, Italy, Laos and Lesotho. Some of those trips were work, some to attend conferences and others to cycle or walk or just to experience the people and places. While we lived in Myanmar and Yorkshire we travelled extensively, exploring the cultures as fully as we were able.
Family, friends and health goals remain at the top of our list. We will continue to spend time and energy on keeping in touch with family and friends and work at keeping in excellent health. We are unlikely to travel quite so much in the future, but are not ready to hang up our travelling shoes just yet. What 2017 will bring in the way of interesting, challenging, worthwhile work is as yet unknown – for sure, something will transpire to inspire us