Home Sweet Home

Well, this post took a little longer than originally planned. With things going back to more normal life compared to moving across the world or a cool road trip, there didn't seem to be as much that other people would be interested in reading. But this is as much my journal as anything, and there is one big update: we're home!

As Taylor and I planned our move, one of the biggest questions was where we would live. There were definitely some preferences (Taylor grew up a South Island boy and was emphatically against the North Island if at all possible), but really it came down to where we could get jobs. As it turns out, job hunting while you're on the opposite side of the world is no easy feat. Taylor already had his permanent residency visa and I eventually received my resident visa (the process of which could be its own post), so we were both eligible to work, but without recent New Zealand work experience and connections, it was slow going. Until a couple of months before the final move, we hadn't landed anything yet. Since we knew we wanted to be in the South Island, we decided our best bet was to focus on the area around Christchurch, the South Island's largest city. In the months leading up to the move, we'd spent hours looking at the housing costs and neighborhoods and things to do around Christchurch. Of course, things never go the way we plan. In this case that was for the best, because Taylor got a job before we left! Just not in Christchurch. Instead, our new home would be in Timaru.

Timaru

Timaru is a very cool coastal town about two hours south of Christchurch. It's also a lot closer to Waimate than Christchurch is, so Taylor had spent some time here as a kid, going to field hockey games and inter-school competitions with Timaru schools. I've spent a few days exploring the city and doing errands while Taylor works. My favorite has been walking down to the beach, which on a winter mid-week day was almost entirely empty. (I didn't get to see any penguins at the local little blue penguin colony, but hopefully that will change soon). As cool as Timaru is, it's not where we ended up living....

The House Hunt

The next step was finding a place to live. Like I said in my previous post, we had a very appreciated landing pad at Taylor's parents' house in the town of Waimate when we first arrived. This was an enormous help because it was a doable commute to Taylor's work and we knew we didn't have to rush into a place we didn't like. A bit of side note on Waimate: recently scrolling YouTube, I found that one of my favorite kiwi comedians had made a stop there (specifically at their iconic tame wallaby rescue/park) and I can't help sharing it with everyone. So if you'd like a laugh and a taste of kiwi comedy, click here. (Note that this is not at all representative of Waimate, but I love Guy Williams and there are cute wallabies).

As much as it hurt losing our homeowner status, we decided that the smartest choice was to rent for a year while we settled in. New Zealand's rental market is known to be pretty tough, especially with pets. Fortunately, the months of looking at houses online had lessened most of the sticker shock of the crazy high housing costs, but based on stories I'd read online, I was still expecting this to be a long, arduous search.

We looked through the local online listings, and started scheduling viewings. We looked at a few houses in Timaru which had lots of character but were old, which in New Zealand can often mean chilly and damp. Luckily, we had one more house to visit. The day before, Taylor had sent me a new posting for a house in Temuka, a little town about 20 minutes north of Timaru. . It was towards the top of our price range, but it really seemed to check all our boxes: fully fenced yard, fairly new build, attached two car garage. It even had some bonuses we weren't expecting: two bathrooms, a bonus detached sleepout, and even came partially furnished. Taylor reached out to the rental agent, and she was able to squeeze us in with another showing the next afternoon. I knew Taylor was hooked the moment we arrived. I loved it too, but didn't want to get my hopes up too much so soon. We applied sitting in the car parked up in the street by the house. Despite my fears, by the next day our application was accepted and a week later we had our keys.

So far we've been here just over a month, and we're loving it. Both of us grew up in small towns, and it's been so peaceful and relaxing returning to that. Our house is about a 10 minute walk to the local grocery store or 5 minutes from the dairy (corner store) to grab a quick pie if we don't feel like cooking. At the same time, it only takes a few minutes of walking the other direction and we're back among farms and nature, which Atticus has been enjoying (more on that later). We even have some very interesting (and woolly) next door neighbors and a view of the beautiful Southern Alps, both of which we can see from our living room. And perhaps most importantly, we have a fully furnished guest bedroom, so we are expecting some visitors! (You might have to fight Atticus for the bed though).

The Paws

Since we've finally made them stop moving around, the paws are loving life. One of the most important things for us when we were shopping for a rental was good space for the pets. Our house has certainly not disappointed. Atticus was overjoyed to have a yard to run free.

Atticus and I have spent our days exploring every street on our side of Temuka. He's also been eager to help get our garden ready. Then after all of that it's time for a good nap with Gator, his favorite stuffed animal we brought over with us.

We're also lucky enough to have some beautiful nature preserves and parks in town. Atticus has been especially excited to get to do some swimming in the Temuka and Opihi rivers.

We've also made a few trips out of town to do some more vigorous hikes. For our first longer hike, we took the quick drive to another town, Geraldine, to explore the beautiful Talbot Forest Scenic Reserve.

Pinky has been living it up as well. Our first furniture purchase was, of course, a cat tower so he could resume his superior vantage point. He has enjoyed that, as well as his numerous window sills where he can keep an eye on Atticus. There have been a few times I've gotten scared that he got out somehow, only to find him sleeping behind the curtains (in the last photo below I had spent 20 minutes searching every spot in the house I could think of, only to meet this sight when I went to see if he'd somehow slipped into the backyard). Our house also has a built-in cat door. While Pinky has been an indoor cat since he's been with us, we're hoping it will be the perfect place to fulfil our dream of building a catio.

The Bake

Before I left my job in Cleveland, my spectacular coworkers collected money and gifted it to us with the specific suggestion that I could use it to buy a stand mixer for my baking. Of course, I didn't hesitate to do so. With stand mixer in hand, I just had to decide what I wanted to bake first.

Years ago, Taylor told me that his favorite fruit was feijoa. Naturally, I had no clue what he was talking about. Turns out, feijoa, also known as pineapple guava, is the fruit of a South American tree that has become much beloved in New Zealand (even far outpacing its popularity in its native Brazil). We got here right at the end of feijoa season, but the tree at Taylor's parent's house was still producing prolifically. Taylor's dad gave us a whole box full of feijoas, and I knew that's what I wanted to use for my first bake. One of the most common baked goods here is the slice, which basically just refers to a dessert made up of layers and cut into squares. These can come in a huge variety of types and flavors. Since I hadn't really made a slice exactly like this, I searched out a recipe and decided to go with this one (though I did make a few adjustments on my second batch). My finished product consisted of a buttery shortbread biscuit base, with a mixture of baked apple and feijoa, and an oat crumble topping. It honestly turned out even better than expected, especially fresh out of the oven.

Once again, I've gone from feeling like I don't have anything to say to writing way too much. I'm sure there will be plenty more updates to come, but I will also probably engage in my long-time favorite past time of talking about whatever New Zealand related rabbit holes I've gone down since I met Taylor. If anyone reading this ever has any questions or wants to know anything about New Zealand or our experience, please feel free to ask!

If you'd like to follow along our journey, you can hit the subscribe button at the top right to sign up to get notified when I manage to get a new post up. Thanks for reading!