From Rainy England to Rugged Aotearoa: A Leap of Faith By Katie Goatley

March 2022: I was sitting in my living room in the Southeast of England. It was unusually quiet. My husband had taken the children away for a rare solo parenting trip to see his friend on the South Coast. I had completed the housework, and the house was remaining freakishly tidy without our two human hurricanes, blowing their wild energy throughout the place. I teetered on the edge of guilt. I wasn’t used to being at a loose end, without the raucous voices of a 2- and 4-year-old begging me for snacks or to play with them.
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​Of course it was raining. If you have ever been to the UK, you will know that the rain there can bring with it the bleakest of grey weather days. I had just made a cuppa. I looked at the sofa; then flopped onto it. Flicking between channels, I landed on "Wanted Down Under", a British TV show about families seeking a life in Australia or New Zealand. Fluff TV, mindless, easy watching. I wriggled under a blanket and snuggled down.
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It had been a weird time for us; my husband Ellis and I had married in 2015 and then welcomed a boy and a girl to our family in 2017 and 2019 respectively. We had been living in West Sussex, a beautiful part of the UK, boasting small market towns, dotted along a nook and cranny coastline, of greens and blues, that gave way in places to natural harbours and estuarine alleyways.
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Two under two. If you've ever had the pleasure, you will understand the challenges this special concoction of love and madness brings with it. We were both exhausted and happy. But exhausted. We had made the decision to return to my home county of Essex, to be nearer to my family and to my mum. Soon enough, we found a house, mere walking distance from her front door. We were excited to be within the warm and supportive reach of our caring relatives. We moved into our new home in October 2019 and on the 23^rd March 2020, Boris Johnson announced the first U.K. lock down in response to Covid- 19.
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Bummer. Double bummer. We were on our own again. Living in a place, that for all its merits, we would not have chosen except for it's proximity to my mum. Triple bummer, we both worked for the NHS. I am a GP, and my husband had just taken a job as a project manager at the hospital. Quadruple bummer, he was now the project manager responsible for the roll out of covid testing for the public and hospital staff at a regional level. A very big job without the infrastructure required in place to support it.
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We thought we had been wearied before, but now we really were tired. Whilst the rest of the UK, protected the community by staying at home, we went out to work. Our children's nursery, without enough children attending, quickly closed. It was just the four of us, juggling, through endless, repetitive days. Then, on the 24^th February 2022, Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine.
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Shocked and dismayed. We were left reeling. The world felt strange and uncertain. Global norms, rules and expectations out of the window.
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It was with these recent events in my mind, that I happened to flick to "Wanted Down Under" on that bleak winter's end day in 2022. Before my husband could return from his weekend away, I had text him; "Let's move to New Zealand!", I said.
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"Ok, let's do it!" he replied.
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I'm not sure what we were seeking in this new life in New Zealand, but I think it was a sense of control, in a world that seemed to be spiralling out of control. We longed to be the rudder of our own ship again. Together, we wanted to prove that we did not have to live in a reactive state, dodging the curve balls tossed towards us. We both anticipated that the world would have a few more of those balls to chuck about, whilst we were trying to raise our young family, and so we took a breath and made a leap in a direction that we, specifically, had chosen.
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Before our arrival, on the 22^nd July 2022, we had never been to New Zealand before. Our flights from London had been cancelled at the gate, after 6 hours of airport queuing with two small kids. We had had to find a last-minute London hotel whilst waiting for the replacement flight. The knock-on effect was that it took us 4 days to arrive in Auckland, via LA and Sydney. When we finally touched down at 1am, it was with two feral kids.
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The next morning, we rose at yet another budget airport hotel and drove our hire car through the wildest of wild country. All we could see for miles were beautiful, rugged hills, and the bluest blue sky. Wild hills, sky and space. I scanned the horizon with trepidation for some clue that we had made the right decision, to rip ourselves from our lives and fly across the world on this adventure.

Fast forward to today and I am sat writing this blog in my new home in Hawkes Bay. Our property search took us around several open homes, and it was at these events, that we repeatedly ran into James and Dugan, also on a house hunt. Ellis was working with Dugan at Hastings District Hospital, and we were all introduced.
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It became a bit of a joke repeatedly bumping into one another – "Fancy seeing you here!" and "I reckon we can beat your offer on this one!".

Sometimes, when I reflect on the journey life has taken us on over the past couple of years, I am reminded of my mum's often quoted "If it is meant to be, it will be". In my more, moonish moments, I like to consider the role fate has had on Ellis and I and our young family. It felt like nothing other than serendipity when on move in day, our removals van rolled up beside James and Dugan's. As it turns out, we were moving into the house next door to one another!
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From there, a friendship blossomed. We spent many a Friday evening, chatting and diffusing the week on the deck at home, over a glass of wine and a good meal.
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As I have said, I am not sure what Ellis and I were searching for when we embarked on this new chapter of our lives. What we have found though, at this point on our journey is community, acceptance, friendship and a peaceful, pace of life for which we are grateful.
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I will be eternally grateful, that I am married to a wonderful man who is both as courageous and wise (read: reckless and foolhardy) as I, so that when I suggested out of the blue, one bleak UK day, that we move around the world, on a whim, he said yes.
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And so, our folie a deux, becomes a folie a quatre since Dugan and James invited us to be a part of their new venture. With a new sense of agency, we are all very excited as we set off on a new journey, one that rejects the status quo, and seeks to find fun, fulfilment and a new future built on the foundations of an ever-growing friendship.
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Now, with our hand back on the rudder of our ship; our children as the stars that guide us, and our friends by our side, we set off, please join us and until we reach our destination, be the wind in our sails.
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