What it’s like moving back to my hometown

I had a couple of blog readers asking how it felt moving back to my hometown, so I thought that would be a fun post topic for today.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that my husband, two cats and I moved from Auckland almost three months ago (it’s gone so quick!) to live in Hawke’s Bay.

Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city with a population of 1.5 million.  Hawke’s Bay is rather less populated with less than 150,000 people.

Hawke’s Bay to me is the perfect mix of a thriving and prosperous community, and not too many people.  There are more roundabouts than traffic lights here, and rush hour is not stressful in the least.  Our four-acre country property is five minutes from town.  Our neighbours are within a two-minute walking distance but trees and paddocks give everyone space and privacy.

The images of this post are from my morning walks.  It's a nice change from my old-life city walks, I'll tell you.  One or two cars might pass me on their way to work, and the only other people around are sheep!  Walking past the grape-vines is very picturesque too.

Pretty much everyone I’ve dealt with here has been genuinely friendly, and people have the time to chat with you.  I’ve definitely noticed most are less stressed than their Auckland counterparts and there is a laid-back air to the place.

I didn’t mean to do an advert for small-town living, but there you are :)

I left Hawke’s Bay when I was twenty-ish, and moved back briefly for a couple of years before moving to Auckland, where I spent the past seventeen years.  I met my Auckland-born husband there so it was well worth the trip.

It’s changed a lot here since I grew up.  It is an agricultural and horticultural area with loads of apples, and now grapes.  It is the perfect climate for vines, so Hawke’s Bay is now a big wine-producing area.  There are also a lot of sheep and cows when you drive around the rural areas.

When I was young in the 1970s, Hawke’s Bay was a sleepy backwater you were glad to get away from and find fun in the big cities.  Now, people are flocking here because it’s grown up to be a sophisticated yet relaxed place to live.

I still have family here which is nice, but most of my friends live elsewhere.  Plus, as an introvert, I don’t need many friends!  I know it’s a terrible thing to say, but it’s true!

My husband is a total newbie here, and he’s loving it.  He said it is how Auckland was when he was growing up.  He starts his new job next week, so he is looking forward to meeting new people, because as much as he loves me and the cats, I think he might have been getting cabin fever as we got settled in!

 

The cool thing about where we live in Hawke’s Bay, is that it’s close-ish to where I grew up, but new to me.  So I have the familiarity of the region, but it’s a new place for my husband and I to make our own.

The cats didn’t visit here at Christmas-time and during the year of course, so it’s all new to them :)  They are learning how to be country cats, and I often see one of them tearing past, relishing the wide open spaces outside.  Nina was spotted in a paddock across the road this week, so she is definitely stretching her legs!

Please let me know if you have any specific questions about moving back to my hometown and I’ll answer them.

--Fiona--