Autumn in Wellington || April 2023

Hello there, welcome to this month’s blog. This has been a very tame month. We’re deep into Autumn here in Wellington now and the temperatures start settling into the colder digits. Since the southern hemisphere has its winter in the “traditionally” (northern hemisphere) summer months, all the holidays that you would have in winter such as Christmas and in Mexico Day of the Death are no longer.

In New Zealand in particular, most of the holidays happen between the end of the year and the first couple of months of the years, including summer holidays. This makes for a very uneventful winter without too many holidays to distract you from the weather, which can make things a bit grey in the literal and metaphorical sense.

How’s it going?

Along with the death quiet winter season holiday wise, it’s low season in Wellington for all things tourism and entertainment, which makes it a very uneventful time for me regarding work both in my usual work places as well as on the festival and special event scene.

To be honest, it makes me a little bit sad but I’m working on some personal mental health issues to get in good terms with different aspects of my routine, lifestyle and career. I might talk more about this in a different post but since it’s what’s been filling in the quiet gaps, I thought it needed a little mention in the monthly blog.

Since coming back from America, I decided not to jump straight back into work during summer high season because of family reasons and also because the year prior I overworked myself and this year I wasn’t on the appropriate mindset to do it again. I also decided not to do weekends anymore or unpredictable start and finishing times to spend more time with Jono.

This of course meant that the hours I could get in my current job within these parameters are limited. The insecurity of my hours is nerve wracking but I’m working on supporting myself working independently and potentially changing my line of work so I’m just doing a little bit of a balancing and figuring things out at the moment.

On the flip side, we’ve done a lot of chill quality time around wellington on the weekends, as opposed to last year were I’d be working any of the 7 days of the week at any given point.

Eastbourne Ferry

Eastbourne is a suburb of Lower Hutt, a part of Wellington, New Zealand. Lying beside the sea, it is a popular local tourist destination via car from Petone or from ferry crossings from central Wellington.

In the hills bordering Eastbourne there is mainly native bush and trees, including red-flowering northern rātā trees. The bush has numerous tracks running to and from them, including a track along the entire bays hills ridge. With many settlers originating from Stromboli, an island near Sicily, the suburb has an Italian heritage similar to several other suburbs in Wellington; this is expressed particularly in its architecture.

Sunday Market

Wellington Walks

Friends

Art – Alebrije concept, Clay heart jewerly, Embroidered heart / Curtain, corset / Swirl and dot paintings

Courses, classes, people, opportunities and overwhelm…

At the end of March, I joined a Business Course with one of my friends. I started back again at Waiata (Maori singing) and Te Reo (Maori language). I also was encouraged to apply for a full time job opportunity that, although I have a background in, I wasn’t too sure about. At the same time I attended other recreational classes and met a couple of new friends.

Since we’ve been back in New Zealand and Wellington for a few months already, it made sense to jump back into routines and some of the opportunities. y goal for this year was to do less and pace myself, having so many things happening and starting at once

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”

– Lauren DeStefano

“Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”

– Chad Sugg