It's in the usual place

That was the text Tash sent me about where to find the car when I arrived in Wellington tonight. I was thinking about that as I drove "home", and I thought that it goes quite a way to explaining some decisions we've been coming to in the past couple of weeks.

One of the main things I've realised is that this move is a bit different than previous ones. There is a process you go through after a big re-location where you need to adjust to being in the new place. It's not just getting used to living in a new place - it's the emotional disengagement from the old one. The thing is that this time half our family is still in Lower Hutt and as a family there is still a certain need to have somewhere we can all be together that is ours.

So we've decided that we may not rent our house out again in January so we still have a home to go to when we are in New Zealand. Tonight I had to detour through Evans Bay as the Terrace Tunnel is being closed for maintenance and as I watched the lights of Wellington and Petone reveal themselves along the foreshore, I felt the unwinding of being in a safe familiar place. For me both/and has always worked better than either/or. I can live both in New Zealand and Australia and love both of them for the unique things they have to offer.

The quality of light

I remember many years ago watching a programme on the development of a distinctive New Zealand and Australian school of art, which placed heavy emphasis on the influence of the different kind of light that exists in the Southern Hemisphere.

I was thinking about that as I drove home tonight - perhaps because that difference is most evident as we begin to loose the light. Brisbane doesn't have daylight saving and I'd say 5.45 pm pretty much matches the sunset level we get in New Zealand at 8 or later by this time of year. The motorway is, by and large, tree lined for most of the drive and the definition of the leaves as the light just begins to fade is truly beautiful. Tonight it crossed my mind that sub consciously it is almost like driving down some of my favorite roads on the West Coast.

It is also a light that, while Antipodean, is also subtly different from Christchurch or Wellington. I decided today that I think it is slight more yellow, or stays yellow for longer - it has the warmth of the desert rather than the coolness of mountains and sea.

I'm hoping there is enough sun when I get back to New Zealand this weekend to make a decent comparison!