It’s been a while since i’ve done one of these, I have a habit of half writing one and not completing it.. but this one has a lot more to cover so I need to write it before anything else happens!
There’s been a lot of uncertainty for a good year or so, firstly not knowing if I could stay on my visa then discovering I had the remainder of the year; to then being uncertain as to whether I could get another visa let alone it being accepted.
If you’ve ever had to deal with the uncertainty of visas I feel ya, because my god is it stressful. If you dont – imagine being told you might need to leave the life you’ve built & love to move back across the world. Eek.
I am very chuffed to say I was a lucky one, my work were able to support my visa and I couldn’t be more grateful. I now have another three years in this beautiful country which makes me want to burst with happiness.
So much has happened over the last few years, it’s been such an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m pretty proud of myself for sort-of holding it together and getting through to the other side. (With a little help from some epic supportive friends).
So aside from the obvious big news of the visa, i’ve also got my drivers licence back after a year, and now I finally have a car too – feeling like an adult again! Driving is such a luxury, I no longer need to fit my groceries into a backpack or pick up what I can when i’m with a friend 😅.
I realised this also means I can actually drive to the beach and go paddleboarding at any point – heavenly.
In the last couple of months (thinking I didn’t have much longer left here) I’ve managed to squeeze in quite a few weekends away which has been epic, spending as much time with friends & making the most of it (as you can probably tell from my instagram) despite the rubbish weather at the moment. I finally did my bucketlist item of doing a skydive – insane!! Definitely want to go again. I’ve also kept up the running which has helped the emotions a lot!! I find when I get overwhelmed or I feel super anxious, going for a run just resets me. Definitely recommend for stress management 😅.
I seem to be challenging myself a lot lately, i’ve ran a couple of 10km’s and even gave Wairau Warrior a go (obstacle course race), which was a fun challenge. We decided last minute to enter a cyclocross competition (I blame Lucy for these rational decisions) without even knowing what cyclocross was.. but it was a good laugh getting caked in mud. I’m trying to decide on my next challenge.. whether I go for a half marathon or not.. but I really want to get back into the mountain biking so we shall see.
It’s kind of weird changing my mindset now, knowing I can invest in things I’ve been needing for a while (like a new mattress 🤣). Hopefully I can finally get the wetsuit i’ve been wanting for ages, so I can attempt my next watersport – Windsurfing! 🙊
Whilst i’m more than stoked I can stay in NZ, I miss my family more than I could ever explain. With covid being an ongoing issue I have no idea when I will see them next. Homesickness is such an annoying emotion that you can’t fix easily, and trying to explain it to people who haven’t felt it is very hard. So for anyone else experiencing it, I feel you. The best thing i’ve found is to spend time with friends and keep busy (or at least thats how I cope with it 🤣).
I’m hoping now i’ve got a car I can actually get back into my photography, because i’ve really neglected it lately. It hasn’t been easy without a vehicle and I guess with the stress I haven’t felt particularly creative, so now whilst I can’t get out much on the board I plan to replace that time with photography! I miss being creative 😩
For now, i’m enjoying feeling independent again, super excited to head down to Queenstown in August for snowboarding and also it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks so got a few celebrations planned (because why not drag it out as much as possible 😏).
I felt like I had so much to cover so this has had to be summarised a lot, but I’ll do my best to update this a bit more often 😅 I also need to get round to writing my post about backpacking in NZ because i’ve had a lot of people ask me about that (with everyone prepping for as soon as the borders open!) so I will do this soon.
Harriet 📸
