about

In September 2014 I said goodbye to my co-workers, landlords, friends, and family, climbed on board a big jet plane… and 19 hours later, found myself standing in a country I never in a million years anticipated I’d one day visit, let alone experience for 9 months.

Yet, here I am, doing life in Napier, New Zealand, and loving it.  There’s no travel plan or itinerary that I’m following – in fact, I’m barely travelling at all.  That’s on purpose.  I’ve done the backpacking thing, staying in a different hostel every few nights, getting a superficial taste of a thousand cities whose names I can’t remember anymore.  This time I wanted it to be different.  I wouldn’t see a thousand cities, but I’d see one really well, beyond the shiny veneer of tourist activities and polite smiles.  Maybe make some friends.  Maybe try stuff I’d always been too chicken to try.  Maybe learn some things that can only be learned when you’re a few thousand miles outside of your comfort zone.

This blog is about those maybes – messy and marvelous – and the stories that go with them.

PS.  You may be able to guess by some references I make that learning to kiwi is mainly being written to stay in touch with family and friends back home in Vancouver, Canada.  But since I hereby make you an honorary friend, I’m hoping you stick around.