Wander & Nest

This has been a week of adjusting – the massive time difference, winter season, getting reacquainted with the metric system, driving/walking on left side, new house, back to work for Sofie, starting a new job for Wylie, new daycare for Mara… woah it’s a lot. It will still probably be a few weeks before we’re all feeling a bit more settled (especially when it comes to sleep, eek!!) but the glimmers we’re seeing in these early days are very promising.

We spent our first weekend exploring the central city including Riverside Market where they were having a Christmas in July festival, complete with Christmas trees, elves, and fake snow, it’s not that cold. We’ve been really impressed with the food availability in Christchurch, especially South Asian options!

We explored a few other areas like the Tannery for cute thrift and craft stores (Sofie’s idea of heaven), the central library where there is an entire floor full of activities for little kiddos, and a good old fashioned mall where Mara’s dreams of driving a bus came true.

Mara started her transition week at her new daycare. We love the way they really help kids transition in over time at this daycare. On Monday we stayed with her for about an hour visit, then the next day we left her for 30 minutes, then 1 hour the next, and finally 2 hours on day 4. By the end of the week she was doing great with zero tears! The daycare is very very relaxed – parents are in and out, toddler of various ages are playing together, kids run between indoors and outside, it’s a little chaotic in the best possible way! We really love it. On Thursday night they had a Matariki (Māori new year) potluck celebration at daycare, and it was so much fun. It was packed with kids, parents, and delicious food. Mara was totally in her element, she didn’t want to leave!

We moved into our permanent housing this week. This was a huge relief for all of us because it meant we could unpack and settle in. The house is great. It has TONS of space, lots of light from huge windows, and several heaters to make up for the lack of central heat, which apparently isn’t really a thing in NZ. The best part by far is the yard and surrounding area. There’s a stream running right behind the house that we can see from Mara’s room.

Once in the new house, it meant that we finally could do some real grocery shopping and other random housewares shopping. We rented a car for the first week to make all that stuff easier. We returned the car today and got to test out the Christchurch bus system. Not too bad! And Mara got her first REAL bus ride. Very exciting!

Now heading into week 2, we’re all looking forward to finding our routines. Wylie will start teaching, Mara will fully transition in to a regular day care schedule, and Sofie will get back to a regular WFH schedule. Let’s just hope the nighttime sleep gods are good to us!