EP 6 — Coming Home to New Zealand

Transcript

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Welcome back to Almost Local. I'm Maria, your host, and today I'm coming to you from beautiful Auckland, New Zealand. If this is your first time here, a warm welcome. Almost local is a community for anyone exploring and navigating life abroad. Whether you are navigating the apps and downs of starting over or simply trying to find your footing in a new place, you are not alone. Many of us have left familiar places behind, and this space is about sharing those real stories so that we can feel a little less alone and a little more connected. So it was July. Winter in New Zealand and there I was standing in Kohi Madama, looking out at Rangitoto. The beach was full. People were swimming in winter. Some kids were chasing a football across the sun and a group of paddle borderers gliding steadily over the glittering water. The cafe was packed. The sun was shining and I was holding a coffee. My very first coffee since I came back Friday the 11th, everything felt surreal. This is winter. Seriously, I had forgotten. Forgotten. That winter here smells like sunscreen, that the sea can spark a little like it's showing off. People will always find a reason to wear gals. And that coffee, it wasn't fancy, no latte art, no special blend, just a simple flat white. But it was magic. One sip. And I was back, back in the strange sunshiny barfoot country at the bottom of the world, back in a rhythm. I didn't even know I'd missed. At the time, I thought coming back might feel foreign, that maybe I'd be an outsider hovering at the edges, but that first coffee reminded me how place gets under your skin, how it imprints on your senses in ways you don't even realize until you return since that day in July. I've reconnected with so many people. Some very good old friends. Others I only knew briefly from school, dropoffs, kids, football, the beach, the playground, and it's amazed me to realize how much actually I was building during those years we lived here before. How much community was waiting for me to step back into. Of course coming back has a bittersweet edge too. I'm not gonna lie. Every Hello here reminds me of the goodbyes I had to say in the Netherlands. The new friends, the daily rituals, the bike I left behind that life feels both close and far at the same time. And now it's September and life feels both familiar and new. The sun is stronger, stronger than I remember from Northern Europe, touching everything with a brightness that feels alive. The birds are so present here. They're songs constant and joyful. From my window, I can see the cows in the fields, the hills rolling in distance. Nature is all around here in New Zealand, and that's what I'm focusing on right now. All that New Zealand, our home, again, is offering, it's in these details, the coffee, the sunlight, the birds, the fields that I'm finding my way back, and somehow it already feels like we belong. Episode seven Today is all about coming home again. What it means to return to a place that has changed while realizing you have changed too. If you'd like to dive deeper into stories, connect with others, or help grow our community, visit almost local.com, our website, or join me on Instagram at almost local. Cool. In the next episode of Almost Local, thank you for joining.