Phew, another year almost done! By this time in the year I always feel like I’m the driver of a runaway car desperately slamming on the brakes and hoping I can come to a stop by the time Christmas shows up. This year is no different. I’ve just returned from a road trip for my guidebook research, my daughter has just wrapped up school for the year (and doesn’t go back until February, eek), I have family arriving in batches from next week, and yet I still have deadlines and work quotas to meet.
Tahunanui Beach, my local
I feel my location here in New Zealand pretty acutely at this time of year, too. While my Northern Hemisphere colleagues are hunkering down for the winter, perhaps taking a handful of days off over Christmas and New Year, here in New Zealand we’re preparing for the glorious days of January. Right now it’s raining, but that always happens right before Christmas and by the 25th it’ll be beach weather and will probably stay that way until about February 7th, when schools go back.
But because I work mostly with US companies and clients (and we all know that the work-life balance in the US is not exactly, erm, the healthiest) I often get work messages on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and even New Year’s Eve. I try to draw boundaries to protect my time off, and I’m generally successful, but while everyone around me here in New Zealand is gearing up for a solid two weeks off, and in some cases the whole of January too, I’m still negotiating my deadlines and work flow. Ah well, it could be worse!
Here’s what I’m proud of having achieved this year.
I bought a frickin’ house!
Most of my peers were doing this a decade ago, while I was still prioritising travel, and channeling all my money (or what little of it I had, as a PhD student) into international trips. Zero regrets. But being settled in one place for the forseeable future, it was painful to continue forking out for rent. I had been nervous trying to get a mortgage as a freelancer, and buying in a booming market (this was back in January, things have definitely changed since!)
But I got the mortgage, bought the first house I fell in love with and put an offer on (erm, don’t necessarily do what I do), and didn’t look back. Except for all those repairs and essential decorations we had to do—the nasty peeling wallpaper and wonky painting lines in the living room were just too much. But yay, I bought a house!
I published my first guidebook!
OK, as a co-author, but still. My daughter and I walked into a bookshop in Hokitika last week, made a beeline for the guidebook section, and found my book! I’ve wanted to be a Lonely Planet author for as long as I can remember. Career goal #1 unlocked; I can now retire happy. Or keep going for another 30 years knowing I peaked in 2022. (And I have #2 in the works, yay).
The published book is Lonely Planet’s Experience New Zealand.
Some pre-Covid clients came back
2020 was a hard year (lol, understatement). When I lost most of my work in March 2020, I thought I’d kissed goodbye a couple of my best travel writing clients forever. But at the time I was told I was on the list to be brought back on board once things got back to “normal” (the quotation marks because I acknowledge we’re not exactly there yet).
I wasn’t holding my breath and got to work diversifying, but this year it’s all come right again and I’ve been primarily working with two big companies who I’d been with for a few years prior to 2020. While still staying a little bit diverse as an insurance policy. One of them even messaged me on Christmas Day 2021 to ask about my 2022 availability (see my intro!) So I’ve felt that things have settled back into a comfortable pattern again, hence my confidence in going so far as buying a house this year.
I got to know the West Coast really well
Related to “I published my first guidebook!” I got to do some incredible trips to the West Coast (of New Zealand’s South Island, which is what we mean by West Coast here). The area is really remote and a bit of a challenge to get to, even from my relatively close hometown of Nelson. And these trips still haven’t finished! I’m still heading to Karamea after New Year for a last research push.
Aside from the great experience of traveling to such treasures as Punakaiki and Hokitika and Franz Josef and Haast (oh my! Haast!) and getting to write about them for my current project, I’ve been inspired to embark on a new creative project that is really exciting me right now. So watch this space!
That’s all for 2022, folks. Unfortunately I’m not signing off just yet (I still have a bunch of retainer work to get through this month) but I’m putting my creative brain away for a bit and planning to squeeze in some beach trips while trying to block out cries of “I’m hungry!” every three minutes from my child. (Oh my god, she literally JUST said it).
Merry Christmas and happy new year!