New Zealand - an exceptional experience

From Bali that we had been thinking about New Zealand, in addition to being told how incredible it was, the main reason was that my close friend Mechi and her family lived there a long time ago and Mechi had invited us to stay as long as we wanted . Mechi and Brendan have two boys, Lucca and Marco, the same age as Beni and Blas, so it was going to be fun. We kept going around because it was far and expensive to get there, and the more Mechi told me that we had to go, the more they wanted to give us.

Ela, Lucca, Marco, Pablo, Beni and Blas.

Mechi and her family were going to spend the holidays and vacations in Argentina, so we were going to be alone with them for some time. Finally we decided and said yes, because having the opportunity to visit Mechi and to be able to live the place from home and with them, it seemed a unique opportunity. So of course, if you say New Zealand, you also say Australia. We were in Thailand and the idea was to go to Australia after New Zealand, we also have friends in Australia and we were ready to visit Dan, another great friend, and stay with him. But with what came the visa for Argentines, and being four, Australia could not be on this trip.

But for better or worse, it was perfect, because we had an amazing time in New Zealand. Do not expect to meet thousands of places traveled, because we did the exact opposite. It was the first time in a long time that we were with friends, in a family home and where we could realize things that we were not able to achieve on the move.

Marianne, Euge and Sofi, it's been so long since I saw them!

We arrived at Euge, another super friend, who stayed in Auckland. Then we took a night bus to Wellington, which was long and the driver did not stop announcing each stop, almost without sleep, we finally arrived at Wellington. To this we must add that we were coming from an eternal trip from Thailand, with a 12-hour wait at the airport, that is, more tired than ever, with a jet lag that we could not overcome, our home days, friends and a day began. different inner peace. The boys did not stop playing together and we were happy to talk to someone other than us. We felt at home right away and we started doing things that we hadn't been doing when we moved so much. I started a three-week body cleansing, Artur began to exercise more, the boys played, we were going to run, to ride a bike, to the beach. Going for a walk in that neighborhood, meditating on the beach, going to the games with the boys, those things that immediately became a life we ​​had not had for a long time, it did us all very well.

I started writing, Artur started with online golf, we felt different, because it was a different time of the trip. As I always say, these are not vacations nor is it a long trip, today, it is our lifestyle, and the routine is what we like least, so whatever that routine is, at the time, we need to change it. And here I learned something very important. The routine is done only by us, nobody but us. Every morning I woke up and exercised with an app that I love. But in a moment I got bored because it was something different every day, but the same. Then one day I was ready to press the button to start the exercise and I felt something inside that told me: if you yourself proposed to do this exercise, and you yourself are here ready to do it, but today you do not feel like doing it, because you are going to do? Then I stopped, and I went to do yoga on the beach. Wow, you don't know what that meant to me, because how many times in my life I put forward a plan, and how many times in my life I followed it to the letter, and this was one of the times in my life in which I understood that only I am the one who has to listen to what I have to say to myself, what my body feels, how I woke up that day, every day is different, so every day I have to listen again.

Collecting lavenders Beni was the photographer.

New Zealand is a country where we would live, where it is very easy to raise children because it is prepared for them, for their freedom, there are divine beaches, parks for super interesting children, it is a place where you grab the car and go out to tour and the landscape catches you. Where each day trip became an adventure. It was hard to get the boys out of the house because they were happy there, but when we got to the show of the day, they were amazed.

It is a very expensive country for us, luckily we were in Mechi and we could cook and prepare picnics. Here I learned the art of picnic and tupper, always being ready, because if the children told me: I'm hungry. Which was very often, I was always ready not to have to go shopping buying something to pass.

We found this tent of sticks on the beach. They ran to play the Indians and ninjas.

But how did they go no further, how being there so close they didn't go to Australia, they didn't go south, they didn't visit more places? No, because we were happy and we needed to be like that at that time. And it is exactly what I learned, that the plan doesn't matter, I imagined it, what they told us we had to do, what we said we had to do, it doesn't matter if we were close to another place to go, because what does matter is that what we do, we do because we choose to do it, because we listen and feel it, because it makes us feel at peace and happy.

I have no words to express the change that this experience generated in us, in many ways it made us grow. Thanks Mechi, Brendan, Lucca and Marco.