2023 favourites

2023 was a year that answered. Overall, it was such a fulfilling, fun and busy time – but invigoratingly busy. Energising busy! It’s been so nice to look back at the highlights, but the vibe underpinning all of these has just been so very good as well, so that even the days and weeks in which nothing much happened felt good, and satisfying, and right. That said though, looking back, here’s what really stands out…

1. Buying our new house and moving back to the city

I mean, obviously. This was the big one! And the one that led, directly or indirectly, to all our other decisions this year that ended up being my highlights. We needed to move back to the city to feel fulfilled and right within ourselves, and I’m so glad we realised that and did it before it was too late – I don’t know how we would have managed it if we had already started building work obviously the extension that we were planning since 2021! The house itself is perfect (now, anyway!) and we couldn’t have asked for a better location – it’s just the right place for us to be living.

2. Renovating our new house

Hahaha this was…hard. But fulfilling. And so very worth it! I’m so proud of how much we’ve done to the place in less than a year, and that we did most of it ourselves. We both really leveled up this year in terms of our capabilities (Hayden especially). I remember crying the day we settled on the house…I’d bumped my head, hard, on a horrendous shelf in the wardrobe that was essentially just a rough-sawn piece of timber placed at head height. I cried because I’d hurt my head but also because I was so appalled at how much work there was to do to the place, and I felt like we’d just made one of the stupidest, worst financial decisions of our life. Spoiler alert: we hadn’t. That wardrobe, crappy shelves and all, was one of the first things we ripped to pieces, and what we replaced it with is SO good. Same goes for everything else we’ve done. I owe about a million updates and photos here, but the place looks (and feels, and smells, and is) just absolutely amazing now, I love coming home to it – it soothes my soul.

3. Visiting a new country

What a brilliant holiday Bali was! I would love to go back there, and one day we will I’m sure, before Amelie is all grown up. It also made me want to go to so many other places in Asia though. Even just to some of the Nusa Islands…gosh I love travelling. Aren’t we so lucky to be able to do it again?

4. Celebrating our 40th birthdays

How much fun turning 40 in the same year! Most of our friends also turned 40 this year and it was a blast celebrating with them also. For Hayden’s birthday we had a fun long weekend in the Bay of Islands, for mine we went to Sydney, and around the same time as mine, but for both of us, we headed out to Waiheke for the day for a long lunch with great friends at Poderi Crisci. It was all so special. As part of my birthday present Hayden bought me art (two framed prints from one of my very favourite photographers, Gray Malin) and then we bought some more in Sydney – two photographic prints that we fell for in a gallery in Paddington. It’s so lovely having those fun memories of the celebrations come up every time I see the art hanging in our house.

5. Tennis and tonics

And Pilates, and yoga, and running, and cycling…take your exercise pick really because the overall highlight here is a year of so much activity and good health. Hayden and I have long known that we both need to fit in movement into our days to feel good, both mentally and physically, but with so much going on this year we really had to get quite regimented about it. We did that and it was so worth it! Hayden did two cycling races this year, I did two running races, and I also regularly do Pilates, yoga and tennis…the aforementioned tennis and tonics happens every week, when I and a bunch of other women play tennis and do drills for an hour, then have a drink. It is excellent fun.

6. Minibreaking in Sydney

I mentioned this under 40th celebrations but it was good enough to stand on its own as a highlight! Hayden and I went to Sydney for four days in November to celebrate my birthday. We had the most fun. I want to do a whole post about it because, if I do say so myself, I feel like our itinerary was pretty much the perfect Sydney break. Possibly the perfect city break, no matter the city – that’d be a fun experiment to try, right?!

7. The beach…and the beach…and the beach

I wrote a little bit about how much we love living by the beach here and I’m happy to report it’s still just as amazing! We’re down there pretty much every day. I’m so glad we’ve been able to give Amelie the gift of living by the beach – it’s how I grew up, and if she’s anything like me, she won’t realise how special and fortunate it is to have the beach only a few minutes walk away, but one day, many years from now, she will!

8. Lizzo

The vibes! This was just such an incredibly fun concert, and really the ideal way to get back into the world of going out and being around thousands of people again. Apparently New Zealanders are going big on gigs at the moment, spending more money than ever on going out to see live music. I believe it! I think we’re all just so happy to be able to again. That’s very much how it felt at Lizzo – everyone was just thrilled to be there and to be around others, listening to uplifting music.

9. Amelie’s end of year Festival of Song

I could have picked nearly anything for this – Amelie’s dance recital, her gymnastics classes, the Christmas party at the tennis club – because it’s not so much about the event itself, it’s about what it represents – in this case, how well Amelie has settled into her new school and all her new activities in the city. She’s done amazingly well. And so have we, to be honest! The Festival of Song was an end-of-year Christmas concert put on by her school, where all the parents sat strewn on the big field, watching our children perform as we ate picnics and socialized. It was so nice to see how well Amelie got on with her friends, and to reflect on how well we get on with so many of the other parents at the school. We really felt like we had already built such a great community around us, and like we were (are) so totally in the right place. A great way to end 2023!