Are we in a movie?

The great pandemic of 2020! Isn't this crazy? Never in my life would I expect that I would be in a government enforced lockdown, stuck on the other side of the world, away from my family and most of my friends, being forced to live 24/7 with someone I have only known for 3 months.  But - I am eternally grateful for the circumstances I find myself in - for now, I have a house I don't need to pay rent or bills on, I still have a job, I am able to work from home, and I am in a beautiful part of the world where I step out my front door and am a stone's throw away from a stunning beach, mountain views, and accessible walking tracks.

I guess I haven't updated in a wee while, so I'll run through the last few months quickly.

I am much more settled in Kaikoura now.  My wise mother has always said 'give everything 3 months, if you don't like it after that then it's OK to quit, but it takes time to bed into something'. It worked with my ex, and with every job I have ever had - the 3 month mark is when things start looking up.

At first I really struggled - everyone already had their own friend groups set up, the locals are friendly but don't want to be your friend, lots of my co-workers headed back to their hometowns every weekend, and my specific role didn't really allow me to meet many colleagues anyways. So I felt trapped and lonely and like I'd made the wrong decision. Thank God for Dan and Sam, I spent lots of weekends down in Christchurch doing cool stuff like rock climbing and bike rides and getting my fix of board games and socialising. 

I joined a local tramping club and when I showed up realised everyone was over 70. But, they were very friendly and had so much local knowledge - AND they're insane hikers and are fitter than me. It's pretty awe inspiring! Last weekend's hike involved a track that had been closed since the earthquake, and we had to climb/scramble up a muddy spur and traverse over 15 slips which were scary and possible life-enders. These guys are extreme and I want to be like them when I am older!

I have also joined the local badminton club and I LOVE IT!! I had forgotten how much I liked badminton - I never really found the time for it in Auckland and all the clubs were of a very high level - this is much more varied abilities and I've picked it up really quickly again and am not bad if I say so myself.  Whilst I doubt I'll be on 'invite me round for dinner' levels of friendship with the people who go, at least I can say hello to them when I see them in the supermarket now which is nice and making me feel more like a local.

I've had some other really cool experiences too - I got to go up in a helicopter to take photos of the work we have done on the project, I have been boating with dolphins, I have been out kayaking with seals and been on a biscuit off the back of a boat - all for free!

I cycle to work most mornings along the most beautiful route - a quiet road and the sea and mountains and I see dolphins sometimes. Life is pretty sweet.

My mental health is mostly OK - though I did have a weird wobble the other day. I often think of my ex still, much to my brain's annoyance - little things remind me of him, like Tuis and Starwars and letter stamping kits (?!). I don't follow him on any social media, but realised I could still see his Spotify profile and he had a playlist of love songs, and a playlist called 'wedding', and my brain went from 0 to 1,000mph and decided that he'd moved on and gotten married.  Highly unlikely given his aversion to commitment, but anything's possible - and it hit me like a bullet train and my face got all hot and I felt sick and couldn't concentrate for the rest of the day.  I was really angry at myself that I reacted like that so booked a counselling session to talk it through - it just seems such an overreaction to something I thought I was nearly over.

Anyways I hope this isn't going to be some sort of prelude to an apocalypse, where I am happily yarning about how good life is and 10 weeks later I have no food, no home, no internet and everyone around me has succumbed the the virus.  It's pretty crazy how so much has changed in such a short period.  I was pretty blase about it for a long time, especially when I was reading it was mostly old people and people with underlying health conditions affected, and the seasonal flu kills more people (I've never even had the seasonal flu, so no idea what it's like).  I was definitely in the camp of 'wow we're being so over the top about this, what the heck' and so I shed a little tear when Jacinda (our incredible Prime Minister) announced that New Zealand was going into lockdown in 48 hours. It seemed very surreal and something that was happening to other countries, not us - and now it's here, and we're curbing our freedom to prevent the spread.  But it makes sense, and I am glad our government is being proactive about it not reactive like many countries - the UK to name but a few!  I am also weirdly excited to have some enforced down time - I am living with my colleague Emily who's very wholesome and loves cooking and arts and crafts, so I'm going to try and get back into making things again and do all the stuff I want to do but my brain is too fried to attempt after a working week.

Here's some nice pictures of some recent things to jazz up the post...

seagulls and surfers

woke up to snow on the mountains - this is the street I live on 

an eerie but beautiful sunset on the last day of freedom

Looking down at Half Moon Bay from the track 

sunrise on the train track

a gloomy kayak

swimming in New Zealand's newest lake, formed by a landslide blocking a stream during the 2016 earthquake

Looking down the Hapuku river

work friends

one of the most beautiful sunsets I have witnessed (I say this about every sunset)

out on the Inland Road

touching some rocks in the Port Hills

lunch with a view

up the Mt Fyffe track 

in my happy place

Mt Fyffe track