Upside Down

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It has been quite a while since I didn't write here, I guess I was not really creative last few days. But after the rain comes the sun...

Not sure where to start ? You know in 2 weeks, a lot happen when you change life…

After this endless flight, Niels & I were both stinking like hell, we define it The «Piggou» smell. Hopefully, we will not using it too much... !! Not a big deal, we went out from the airport with our life packed onto our shoulders and, good point, even our long board didn't get lost !!!

Our senses are overexcited by the unknown and shortly we see the Uber driver park this Toyota in front of the airport. He looks fresh, kind of happy, he welcomes us with a smile. We are pretty far from his state, but doesn't matter we are here, together and SURTOUT we can drop our HUGE bag packs in his car ! This is a pure feeling of happiness.

Just after getting in his car, I quickly realized how different this country is.

Just the opposite of what we know, starting with driving on the left side.

Well, we wanted changes, here we are, live in another way, forget our habits and just slide into another culture, spirit and lifestyle.

After few minutes, we were already driving along the Marina of Auckland, tons of big luxurious white boats, all perfectly align and shinny… From this point, we were able to see THE famous tower of Auckland, surrounded by business centers. It’s going quick throw the windows… too fast to realize where we are and what it is standing in front of us.

We crossed a huge bridge connecting Downtown to the North Shore and after less than 30 min, no more building, avenues or boats, we are in a family area with square houses everywhere.

We got both big smiles when we see those houses, it feels like we are part of a movie scene : organized by number, with small perfect garden, old rocking chairs on their porch, news papers rolled in their mailboxes.

We are nearly reaching the destination point. Niels has eyes everywhere. The driver stops in the address and let us go with a "good luck" and our 5 luggages...yes we do have 5 luggages but it seems bigger that it is... or not !

Anyway, we found out a cute tiny house made by wood with fluffy carpet floor, probably coming from the English colonie cliché. Everything is very comfy, clean, light and we just has the time to remove our shoes that we are already jumping in the WARM SHOOOOOWWER (enfinnnn)!!!

It’s gonna be one of our home for few weeks, just the time to rest and settle.

Côté émotion... not gonna lie, it was an Up and Down feelings, a mix of tears come from joy but also (and mainly) from fears.I have to admit, mental and physical adaptation were, for me, a huge step. It was clearly not as easy as I thought. Outch

Niels is like « un poisson dans l’eau », I am very impress to see his capacity to take everything smoothly with lots of empathy. He understands and spreads positive spirits, no matter what.

He was fighting every single day to get rid of my bad energies, destroy this non let go.

It took us(me) a week to stabilize our emotions and understand that our dream is coming true and has a price.

We decided to settle in the small city called Devonport, a cute area with lots of community shops, some rustic bars and cheap fish&ships with the Rugby World Cup background.

People are sweet, curious of our accent (so do us !!!), they look happy to meet new people and welcome bag packers.

It was this guy working for the ferry who try to give us a French conversation.

Even this woman from the store gossiping about the neighborhood manner during Covid time.

Everyone shares easily their life and it is authentic. It feels true.

We are speechless every day about landscapes, the bay is gorgeous. Nature is opulent, birds sang out with unusual tones, trees & flowers are huge, colorful, pure. We spend most of our time along Pacific coast beaches by long board, just hearing waves, understanding tides lighting by the sky line of Auckland City.

Days after days, we're realizing how lucky we are, waking up by the sun or the rain, doesn't matter the time, we have a the time of our life.