We’re moving… Again!

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Yes, we are moving again. First of all, it is not that we don’t like Auckland, it definitely has its pros and cons. But there is a but… We’ve been thinking lately on what we want in the long term and it came down to a few wishes. We would like to buy a house soon, somewhere relatively warm. And we would like to buy a house that we can pay off quickly as travel and flexibility will always be (very!) high on our priority list. This means that Auckland is not a possibility, houses are too expensive. Wellington isn’t exactly warm. But we need to be able to commute to one of these two cities as this is where our work opportunities are.

So where to then!? Martinborough!? When Julia and I just got together, back in 2008, on our first trip I took her camping in the Pinnacles in the South Wairarapa. Martinborough is the town that we had to drive through and stopped at for a coffee. We’ve liked this town ever since and visited many times. It is a town that is famous for its boutique vineyards and many festivals. It is a weekend getaway for Wellingtonians. For a town with only 1500 people living there it has does have quite a bit to offer, there are cafes, restaurants, pubs, shops and even a beautiful cinema. The weather is warm in the summer and crisp in the winter, Martinborough being on the dry side of the Rimutaka mountain range (and Wellington on the colder, wetter side).

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December 2008, camping at the Pinnacles, outside Martinborough.

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Julia was a bit hesistant about the camping at first, but now she is pro. Last year we camped 100 nights!

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Can’t beat a good campfire!

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The Pinnacles. This is where Paths of the Dead in Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King was filmed.

The one thing that has so far kept us from moving here is that the commute to Wellington is long. It is a 15 minute drive to the railway station and then an hour train ride to downtown Wellington and then however long you have to walk to get to your office. So basically three hours commute a day… Thing is that if the commute were to be shorter, more people would live there, houses would be more expensive and it wouldn’t be as peaceful as it is now. We really do like the idea of a more peaceful place to live and lots of outdoor options with the Tararua Mountain Ranges and the south coast in our backyard. The Wairarapa really is our favourite slice of New Zealand for its rolling hills, vineyards and gentleness. There are other parts of New Zealand we’d like to live, but finding consistent work in IT would be a mission impossible.

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Our favorite vineyard; Vynfields.

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Most vineyards can be walked to from town. It is very easy and fun to go around the vineyards, taste wine and not have to worry about driving afterwards!

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South Coast

So after lots of thinking and considering if the commute was a deal breaker we have finally made the decision to do it! We are moving to Martinborough on the first of September. We both have two weeks off work. Julia has been transferred from the Auckland office to the Wellington office. My contract has been extended to early October and I am allowed to work these last three weeks from home. So the work thing has really worked out, although I will need to find a new contract for October onwards. Another thing where we have been lucky is that we have found a housesitting assignment in Martinborough that has an amazing fit with our moving date. On a housesitting website we came across a couple who own a vineyard in Martinborough and were looking for someone to take care of their two cats and to keep the house occupied while they are going to Europe. After email and phone contact we agreed this was going to work rather well and we are going to take care of their house and two cats for seven weeks, starting 2nd of September.

The two weeks off were going to be used to find a place to live and arrange furniture but it looks like we can postpone that for a bit, so we can use this time to do nice things. We are going to catch up with friends in Wellington and enjoy our time in the Wairarapa. We also plan to go for an overnight hike to the Powell Hut and up Mount Holdsworth in the Tararuas, hopefully in cold and snowy conditions, we’ve already bought some extra gear to be able to do this.

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Tararua Mountains

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Rocky Mountain Lookout, looking towards the Wairarapa.

Once we go back to work, we are sure the commute is going to take a bit of getting used to, but we think we’ll stay in Wellington for one night of the week. This will be the night we do our ‘city experience’ and either meet with friends, or do something around town. I’ll also try to find a contract where I can work from home one day a week. This is not possible for Julia currently, but something she would like as well in the future. This will help make the commuting a bit easier.

When we are sure we like living in Martinborough we will buy a house. So yeah, that’s the news! We’ll post again when we are there and have had a chance to take some more photos.

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Winetasting when my parents visited us in 2010.

 

72 thoughts on “We’re moving… Again!”

  2. That sounds amazing! Most train commutes in London are around an hour so it doesn’t sound all that bad to me. Depending on where I’ve lived I’ve had to leave up to two hours before work, I think you’ll be fine ^_- good luck!

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    • Thanks Jo! I’m already having a quite long commute here in Auckland so am hoping that the commute from Martinborough to Wellington isn’t going to be too hard to adjust to. 🙂

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  4. Goed verhaal weer. Sterkte voor de laatste weken in Auckland.
    We waren toch echt in 2011 in Martinborough volgens mij. We herinneren ons de wijngaarden en de stad nog wel.
    Julia, a few weeks you can see the cats. Greetings and good weekend.

    Reply ↓

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