I think I'm gonna move to Australia...

I am delighted to be able to announce that on July 3rd this year , I am finally crossing the ditch and realising a dream I have had for eight long years.  I am FINALLY moving to Australia! 

I could not tell you that lovely piece of news last week, as I had not yet resigned from work and made all this public knowledge...so sorry about that.  Now that it is out in the open, I can finally recount my excitement over the next four months or so as I embark on a triathlon of another kind – packing, flying and settling in.  Of course, there will still be lots of training updates and triathlon stuff in this blog.  To forget that would be criminal.

I spent a lot of time in Aussie as a kid, mostly in Sydney on school holidays, and have more happy memories there than I do in New Zealand.  Aussie feels more like home, and I am going there to make some more happy memories…finally.   I have just 12 weeks left in NZ, and that is pretty exciting – yet scary at the same time.  So much to do, so much to see and so little time, I think it is about 85 sleeps away now.  I have one more weekend away, in Rotorua, so I need to make the most of it.

It is starting to dawn on me that I have to find new everything.  A new supermarket, a new bike store, new triathlons to do, a new place to make my workday latte, a new department store or three, a new post office, a new bank branch, a new doctor, a new chemist, a new physio, a new sports masseuse, a new pool, a new gym, a new hairdresser, a new fruit shop – the list is never-ending and it’s all about new, new, new.  It is a wonder I have not gone crackers with all this newness. 

The list of things to do between now and then has morphed into an entire project plan.  Everyday I think of something else (or many things) to add to it, just in case I forget something.  I have always been a paranoid list maker and have to check everything like three times (it is an OCD thing that I have).  Everything I do is checked; double-checked and checked a third and final time because it is then “third time lucky” as they say.  Three is just one of my lucky numbers; the other is seven, so the third day of the seventh month is a good day for me to move.

I will finally be joining a triathlon club when I arrive, as well as Triathlon Australia so I can get a race licence, which you need to participate in triathlons.  I have a club picked out and it is close to where I want to live.  Well, that “where I want to live” is actually my second choice as the first choice is too expensive for me at present, and I want to live by the ocean again.  I also have a gym picked out and I’d love to work there as well but only time will tell if my NZ qualifications will transfer straight across to an Aussie one or if I have more work to do.

Last weekend, I was spring-cleaning, chucking, and packing like mad.  I bought six boxes, two rolls of tape and a bag of bubble wrap a few days before Easter.  I have packed and sealed two boxes, 80% packed a third box and have designs on finishing that box and box numbers four and five this weekend.  Unfortunately, box number seven will be coming home with me this weekend as I have a rather large Mexican Sombrero (from Tijuana), a tent, a wind trainer, a meditation seat and a few sleeping bags to pack and my current boxes are too small.  Fingers crossed there is no box numbers 9-12, but I can stretch to eight if necessary.

My biggest dilemma right now is how to ship my bike.  Do I take a chance and take it on the plane and hope like hell I get everything into my checked baggage allowance of 30kg  (thanks Emirates, you guys rock!), or do I ship it airfreight with the rest of my stuff?  If I am over the baggage allowance on the plane, it is $20 per kilo.  The volumetric of my bike box will be at least 37kg so best it goes on the plane and the summer clothes go in a box airfreight.

This requires thought - catch you all later, my brain is over it and it's time to sleep