Back to New Zealand: One year into bold changes

It has been a year since we travelled to New Zealand as a family of five. Since then, Jason and I both made big life changes. I stepped down from nearly every leadership role in the local church and Jason cut his hours in IT drastically. We are still juggling a lot and pouring over full days, calendar appointments and zoom calls. For the most part we've traded in our office hours for coffee meetings, fundraisers and networking calls. We are awkwardly learning the world of local non-profits, sitting in video calls as the newbies who have to ask what half the terms mean. We are taking notes from experts in the 501c3 world who are gracious enough to meet with two wide-eyed, very green, very naive, millenials who still believe in "changing the world".

Life is exciting and still exhausting. Our kids (ages 3, 6, 9) keep us humble and rooted. We vacilate between hope-filled vision and dizzying to-do lists of baby steps. There is more work ahead than what we could ever imagine. It's October now. The holidays are around the corner. So is a new decade and significant milestone in my life. In January I finally get to enter the 40's Club.

I started imaging how I'd like to mark the turn of a new chapter at the same time Jason picked up the delightful hobby of travel hacking, which doesn't actually require any hacking. It does require flexibility, though. So when we found round trip tickets to New Zealand for an outragously good price, we booked them. I have friends who've hiked the Camino to celebrate turning 50 and another friend who took a backpacking trip to rugged Scottland when he turned 40. I knew I wanted to walk. Be in nature. Discover more corners of the world as I continue to discover aspects of myself.

So in a week, with the help of both sets of grandparents holding down the fort, Jason and I make the journey back to Aotearoa. We'll spend the majority of our time in the South Island with hikes planned nearly every day. We'll visit the fjorland again and spend time near the glacial region I've never visited. It'll be beautiful. Wet, rainy, windy. We'll be dazzled by views, and also challenged physically.

What we've committed to is too difficult for us. I've never walked this many miles or carried a full pack. We're not in the best shape of our lives. In fact, we're going in tired! As the trip approaches Jason keeps reminding me, "you could have picked an all inclusive on the beach, but you chose this." I did. We did. In more ways than one, we are choosing the trek through the mountains, the soggy valleys and the the rocky terrain, over the lounge chair with the pina colada. I've got nothing against relaxing in the sun, maybe next year. But in this season of new adventures, unknown futures, and big dreams, a trek feels more appropriate.

I look forward to sharing more. Time to write, process, put words to this past year and articulate my hopes for the years to come, that is the true gift. And getting to experience all of it with Jason, that's the cherry on top.