Networks

When people think of networks they often imagine computer systems but networks also refer to the support system of sharing between others with common interests. We all have networks in place and the support we get from these helps us to make it through our busy lives. I think that we sometimes take the value of these for granted, especially when we have always had them around us. I have to admit that I probably did. There is nothing like travelling to the other side of the world and moving to a town where you don’t know anyone, in a country where you don’t know anyone, without your spouse and with a 6 year old daughter in tow, to find out how important these contacts are in your day to day life.

Having moved here for a temporary period it makes it a little easier as I know it is only for the short term. However, I am a social creature and I really enjoy doing things with like minded people. I have now been in Palmy for over a month and I am slowly building up that network but it has been more challenging than I had anticipated. I am fortunate that having an office at Massey University has instantly surrounded me with a group of colleagues with similar academic interests. Visits to the coffee room (or common room as they call it here) have allowed me to quickly meet a large group of people. Fortunately I am not shy and so I just make sure I place myself into the conversation.

One of my other main interests is outdoor sports. Palmerston is full of different clubs so I decided the way to meet people who had the same sporting interests was to attend some of these club events. The first club I checked out was the Manawatu Striders which is a local run and walking club. They were very welcoming and I joined a small group of runners for their Sunday morning run. Here it is nearing the end of summer and people are well into their training plans while I have just come from snow and downhill skiing (which doesn’t really tax the cardiovascular system). The group is road focused so my first run was a 90 minute road run. My lack of fitness was pretty obvious (to me anyways) but I persevered and made it through. I did enjoy myself and the people were great but I am really searching for more of a trail running group. So far I have had no real success but I have managed to find some local trails near the campus and I run on these at lunch. Through this I have slowly met a few people at Massey who run at lunch and now I have some company.

I would also like to do some mountain biking but not knowing where the trails are makes it difficult and to be honest I prefer to ride with other people (especially since I seem to be able to find my way off the bike unexpectedly). There are areas to ride in Manatuwa (the region I live in) but they are generally outside of Palmy so you need to go with others to find out where these trails are. I have made some contacts and hope to get out with the mountain biking club on one of their weekend rides in the near future.

One of my main challenges has been availability. I have the time in the evenings and weekends but I also have Bree.  I have now got one babysitter so I have a little flexibility but I do need to be reasonable about how much time I can go out for in the evenings or weekends. I have found that I have to squeeze my exercise into the time when she is at school but I also need to balance that with the time that I have to get work done.

There is also a transition for Bree but she seems to be handling it well. She has made friends at school and also in her after school care program. She would really like to have some friends over for “play dates” but I first need to get her friends contact numbers and meet their parents. This is a bit of a challenge as I don’t pick her up from school so I have not met many of the other parents but I am working on this. We have actually been so busy on the weekends that we haven’t really had time to have other kids over.

To be honest our social calendar has been pretty full with invitations to different people’s houses on the weekend and taking care of the normal week day activities (homework, swim lessons, grocery shopping etc.). I think I probably just want to do too much! I know that I am only here for a short period of time so I want to experience all New Zealand has to offer in that time but I need to be realistic. I am sure as our time here progresses we will both make many new friends but I do miss my friends and family at home and I think this trip has helped me to see how important they are to me.