I have my work visa and plane tickets, most of my belongings are nearly to my parents’ house by now (where I will have a second pack out to have everything sent to NZ), my bags are about as packed as they can be aside from the final prep of the last few days on Kwaj…and I’m counting down (15 days now!) until I get to go see my family for nearly 3 weeks. After the craziness of the last few months, I’m more or less just in a waiting mode now. I can’t even have any more underwater photo sessions, as my scuba and underwater camera gear has already been sent off.
So as I wait and enjoy looking out over warm blue tropical waters and watch out for falling coconuts, I thought I’d go back and share some of my previous adventures and photos, which I always meant to obsessively document at the time.
The next post I’ll work on will be about Roi-Namur, an island on the north side of Kwajalein Atoll, which I’ve visited twice and wish I had the time to see again.
Why did I decide to pack up and overturn my life by moving to another country for an indefinite period of time? Or perhaps more to the point, as I already have lived overseas for the last two years, why did I decide to remain overseas and now move to a country where I actually have to have a visa and will no longer be paid in US dollars?
I have a number of reasons, both personal and professional, but these are among the top.
Adventure
Clownfish and Anemone, Kwajalein
I love to travel. I started collecting postage stamps when I was about 5 or 6 years old, as I like to dream of all the places the stamps have been and their history. While there is so much more of the US that I want to see, there is even more of the world I want to see as I have the opportunity, and there are some places that I may have a better chance of exploring and learning about sooner if I live somewhere else like New Zealand (e.g., NZ itself of course, and Australia being the most obvious first choices…cheaper flights and more vacation time means I’ll be able to see and learn more than if I was just there for a couple weeks’ visit).
I will also have the opportunity to learn some new things, like here in the Marshall Islands I learned to scuba dive, and went sailing and deep sea fishing for the first time. Not that I couldn’t do any of that in the US of course, but depending on where you live, some activities may be more accessible and economical. In New Zealand, maybe I will learn to ski or snowboard, further advance my scuba certifications, go bungee jumping, etc.
Challenge
Mt. St. Helens, Washington, USA. One of the greatest challenges a forecaster may face is predicting winter weather, especially when and how much it will snow.
Kwajalein has certainly challenged me in many ways, but now I need some greater challenges in my career and perhaps in my life. Moving to the Southern Hemisphere where cold fronts come from the south, winter in the middle of the year, and forecasters report temperature in Celsius and winds in kph, may not take too long to get used to (I remember it feeling weird at first having Kwajalein’s showers come from the east, and now I think nothing of it when in the tropics). However, New Zealand weather will give me plenty of forecasting challenges that I expect will keep me happy and humble. And let’s not even start on what it will be like getting used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road….
Opportunity
Pacific Ocean, Kwajalein. Opportunities to experience new things exist everywhere. In my case, I’m glad I took a chance and accepted a position in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, allowing me to see dolphins ride next to our little boat in the bluest blues of the tropical seas and to taste fresh coconut straight from the palm tree. I’m excited to see what’s next in New Zealand.
The global economy is a mess, and the US has been struggling with producing jobs; even for those with years of experience, there is often a lot of competition. I had hoped that things would improve by the time I left Kwajalein, but the job market still looks pretty bleak, especially now with the National Weather Service hiring freeze in effect, in an effort to reduce furloughs. As much as I love my country, I wasn’t willing to sit around for perhaps some time for the right job to come my way, when I could be happily living in another beautiful mountainous rainy/snowy country (in some ways reminiscent of where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest) with some similarities to the UK (I love that country) and a good job.
After the high turnover of Kwajalein (always seem to be meeting new folks and saying goodbye to others), I knew for a while that wherever I ended up next, I wanted it to be somewhere I liked well enough to settle there for some years. I couldn’t be happier with the idea of settling in New Zealand. My camera is certainly going to get a work out, and a new lens or two soon as well!
Three weeks from today, I’ll be leaving my home of two years on Kwajalein Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands (about halfway between Australia and Hawaii). Here I have experienced many new adventures, including scuba diving, sailing, deep sea fishing, flying in a helicopter to many other little islands, witnessing test rockets shoot across the sky, my first solar eclipse, and so much more.
As you’d expect, it’s had some ups and downs, but overall has been great and I am glad I came. It’s time for me to go, though, and my next career move as a meteorologist is to go somewhere with more interesting weather than “86F, partly sunny, and a 10% chance of showers” nearly every day. 🙂
I am super excited that after leaving Kwajalein and visiting family in the Northwest US (which I am quite excited about too), I will be moving to Wellington, New Zealand, to work at their national weather service. I arrive there 6 weeks from today!!!! 😀
Without waxing too nostalgic (yeah, yeah, I know), I will miss some things about Kwajalein, but most of all I will miss some of the people. I’ve always said this place is worse than a college town with the high turnover, and it can be hard to build up good friendships when working contract positions. I have been saying goodbye to an increasing number of my friends and acquaintances over the last couple months or so, as some people I know are also moving or going on their summer vacations and won’t be back until after I leave. After a couple more goodbyes yesterday, I suddenly felt ready to just jump on the next plane out.
My plane is coming soon enough though, and I’ve got to try to enjoy the rest of my time here in the tropics, as it’ll be here before I know it and I’ll be heading to winter in the Southern Hemisphere!
Thank you for visiting and welcome to my new blog! I plan to fill it mostly with posts and photos of my travels around the world. There isn’t much here now, but check back frequently for updates as I set it up.
