Family Gap Year Post #33: Settling into the Wellington Area (May)
Description
For the final international stop during our Family Gap Year, we settled into a small town right outside of Wellington called Petone.
Petone is a seaside town, and we lived in a tiny bungalow one block from the ocean. We sent our boys to a forest school every day from 9:30am-2:30pm.
Highs
My absolute favorite thing about living in this area was my daily walks along the ocean, collecting sea glass. I also loved that the walkability extended to the grocery store, library, and awesome restaurants (just like our last long-term stay in New Zealand).
I also loved visiting New Zealand’s largest Montessori school. I just can’t get over that Montessori exists on six continents and looks the same every time I visit a classroom in a different country.
During this stop, we finally got to meet our pen pals. It was so fun to live regular life with them—getting “take away,” relaxing at their home, and then heading to their local indoor pool.
It was also fun to venture into Wellington. The Te Papa Museum is my absolutely favorite. I still can’t believe it’s free. We loved popping in there just for 30 minutes or an hour at a time. It’s so much more relaxing to do museums with children when you don’t feel pressured to “make it worth the money.”
Our nighttime visit to Zealandia was also a highlight. We saw a kiwi! And it was so inspiring to see how a group of dedicated citizens can preserve and regenerate land.
Lows
There were two hard parts about this stop: 1) it went too quickly and 2) we struggled to fill up the hours before and after school, since the sun rises late and sets early in the winter.
Tate and I didn’t go for a lot of bike rides during this stop (it’s a bit cold and the nearest playground wasn’t too enticing), and the boys didn’t have a lot of creative energy since they created all day at forest school and we also just didn’t have very many supplies.
Also, the boys were more irritated with each other, since they spent all day, every day together. I usually solved the dilemma by suggesting that we do an official activity (like going to the museum in Wellington or walking to the local movie theater). But then we would also end up eating out, so we kind of spent way too much money and basically ate unhealthy food all month long.
Oh, well. This is likely the only Family Gap Year we will ever take!
Lessons Learned
- I finally understand what Mary Oliver meant. I’ve always used the line from her poem for dreaming and scheming and setting bit goals in my life: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” During this leg of our trip, I finally understood that she was talking about walking through a field and watching grasshoppers eat. For me, it was collecting sea glass on my daily walk. I slowed down a whole lot. And stretched my walks out a whole lot. And I collected a whole lot of sea glass.
- I am a better person with a dog in my life. In many ways, I am not a dog person. I don’t like dog hair on my clothing or my furniture. I don’t like extra mess. I don’t like the smell of wet dogs. I watch my hands after interacting with dogs. And, yet, dogs are the most perfect embodiment of how we should live our lives—fully present, overcome with gratitude over the small things, and completely willing to lean into rest when needed. It’s bittersweet because I have a lot of guilt about the attention I was not able to give our bloodhound in the last half of his life. He got pushed down the priority ladder when I gave birth to two kids and basically birthed a school. But this trip has reiterated how grounded dogs can make us feel. I am so eager to return home, get a dog, and work really hard to be worthy of it.