So this week Joe and I have been talking a lot about home and where it is and what it means blah blah blah. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to write a little post about what we came up with! Sit tight and enjoy and I’d love to know all your thoughts, wheres home for you?
So I’ll start with me and I guess home really is Wallingford! It a place I can leave for so long and will always be home. I know I can walk down the street and bump into people I know there. Most importantly its the home to my family and a lot of my friends. There are so many special memories in wallingford from running around castle gardens as a child to hanging down by the river in my teenage years! Not forgetting more recent memories of drinks in the OPO and boathouse. Its a town that I’ve grown up with and I think its grown up with me and the people around me. Everytime I leave, I go back and the details has changed while I guess some people see that as sad for me I just see it as normal after all I’ve changed too overtime. No one broke the deal and we’ll stay good friends but I think Wallingford and I have different agendas now!
Essex is where I went to university, Writtle to be specific if you’re still not sure lets call it Chelmsford. Your university days are meant to be the “best days” of your life while I slightly disagree about that! Essex will always have a little bit of home unlike Wallingford thats grown with me. As I drive back through the winding countryside onto campus I’m over whelmed by a sense of nostalgia and reminded of all the great and crazy memories I have had there! For the 3 years I spent at Uni I lived with my best friend the one and only Shabba! We often look back at these times and now in a world of buying houses and important jobs (on her part not on mine), I think its a place we both have fond memories we shared there. I think if you’d ask her she’d agree Essex has a little bit of home and to be honest with you it probably always will!
Next on… to my beautiful WALES! On a camping trip when I was probably about 16 with my wonderful Shabba! I told her that I’d marry a welsh man and move to Wales. And I kind of got my wish although I am still waiting for that ring. When Joe and I met 4 years ago we spent the first 4 months of our relationship in America which I’ll get to shortly. We managed about 3 months of long distance before Joe asked me to move up to Wales. I’m not sure even he was expecting me to turn up on Christmas Day declaring “here I am” with all my belongings packed into my little Clio and a job interview looming. But thats how my Wales adventure started. Over the 2 and a bit (I think :/) years we lived there we shared two beautiful houses, one in Beddgelert and one in Betws yn Rhos. I spent days walking around finding hidden corners and falling more and more in love with Joe and Snowdonia! Aww now ain’t that sweet. While more recently Joes mum and dad were visiting New Zealand, Joes mum asked me if I felt a connection with Wales and where we’d consider home if we went back. My answer was and still is definitely, Wales is more than home to me and I’m sorry Wallingford people but if we do come home I think ultimately it will be to Wales we return!
America is a different kind of home, its not a place I particularly miss or long to return to but… and heres the catch. I do really miss the time I spent there. Ask anyone who’s ever worked at camp, everyone around you becomes your family and in a way I guess that does make it home! Joe and I will def return, its where we met and holds some very fond memories check it out for yourself in this vid… (video credit to Nansi :))
Cat Ba is the first place we stayed rooted after 6 months on the move… if anyone reading this is traveling to Vietnam Cat Ba is the first place I would recommend! We had a fab time there but it was also a place of highs and lows. Job drama, and the place for real friends! We met some totally awesome people there! Some of whom we are still in regular touch with I’ll show you what we did in Vietnam if you’ve not already seen it… and if you have skip past!
I’ll also leave a little link here about some of our fave memories here it still all feels like yesterday and I’m a sucker for looking through old pictures. If you are headed that way check out my Top 10 things to do in Cat Ba
Last but not least! New Zealand. We arrived here with no money and no plan. The tiny little town of Hororata has opened its arms to us and this is a view that feels like home every day. Over the last year we’ve made a little Robindale family and later on a Riverlands one too which has spread wider over New Zealand and when we leave Robindale at the end of this season I know its a family that will continue to grow and grow as our adventure continues. While this family is dysfunctional its filled with characters and people we’ve lived with and grown to love, people that have shown us kindness while we’re thousands of miles away from home. We’ve celebrated Christmas and birthdays with these peoples as well as some of the smaller day to day achievements and goals that come with work. We have a local pub that after frequent visits is now filled with friendly faces every time we enter. Where ever we end up this place will always be a little piece of home right here! We’ve loved having Joes parents to visit and hope this year will bring us more visitors from overseas!
Now I’m aware that all this rambling doesn’t answer the question so where is home? Joe says that he only wanted to come to NZ because he thought it might be the only place in the world better than North Wales. I think Wales is still in the frontline where as Joes opinion varies depending on how much he’s had to drink. I think my conclusion is that for me home is more of a person than a place. And works pretty well for me right now. I’d love to hear what everyones thoughts are? Where is home for you?
“you must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong” – Sue Fitzmaurice
Paris X
Once back in town and settled into a campsite we started coming up with plans for the next day! I put forward the idea of going to the kiwi centre which is like a little zoo experience! Joe and Pete needless to say took the piss, but we reached a conclusion that because I missed out on the shanty town museum we could go to the kiwi centre. Safe to say the kiwi centre did not disappoint. We spent along time looking at a tank with 5 different types of fish in, this proved great entertainment trying to differentiate between them and of course everyone thinking they were right! We moved swiftly on…
After dragging Joe away from the kids only section we stumbled upon a room called catch your own cray fish! now this sounds fun right? After a while of trying though we had no luck and were just about to leave when Joe saw some movement and reached for the net. He scooped up a beast of a cray fish and then proceeded to drop it all over the floor in a panic! Scared he was going to hurt the little guy I stepped up and impressed everyone with my cray fish handling skills. Great fun for us so imagine how much fun it’d be if you had some kids to entertain!! 
Safe to say we enjoyed the rest of our visit too. The highlight was of course seeing the kiwi bird right at the end. Its a very low lit room as they are nocturnal but we saw him running around. They are pretty fascinating and if you’ve never seen one it is worth the visit just for that! The next day we walked around the small museum in the town this was an average museum and we spent a lot of time talking to the guy who works there! We went to the pub as always for a few drinks and I metioned that I’d seen another Instagram photo of a sign made out of drift wood that I wouldn’t mind taking a look at. Joe tried to fob me off with a sign we could see from the pub but eventually we managed to go for a walk down to the beach in order to hunt for my sign! We found it straight away and isn’t it beautiful? We ended the day with a bit of shopping and Joe even brought me a green stone necklace! All in all Hokitika is a great town, loads of character and so pretty! I’m sure Joe and I will be back! 
The next day it was time for the Hororata games and what fun they were!!! We headed down to the village and enjoyed a whiskey tasting and a seminar, caber tossing and even watched the highland fling. We ended the evening with a BBQ at Gemma and Dannys which was the perfect end to our days off! Safe to say we wanted to do it all over again.
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