As much as I hate Queensland and am apathetic towards New South Wales, I really do like Victoria. Melbourne may be my favourite city outside New Zealand - of course, nowhere could compete with the awesomeness of cities like Wellington and Christchurch. Sadly, the Gold Coast and Brisbane are town planning disasters, the very definition of what not to do, and they don't exactly have the world's greatest climate. Being Australia's cultural black holes does not help either. Living in southeast Queensland has somewhat marred my perception of Australia. But I've made a few great friends and found my faith here, and I'm pretty certain my life in NZ would not have been as good as the one I've had here, so I'm thankful Mum chose to move.
I must say, though, that eight years is far too long to be outside New Zealand, and I'm really not looking forward to the day when I'll have lived half of my life outside of the country. Wearing the shirts of our national sporting teams doesn't exactly cut it some days.
So that's another year gone. Where does the time go?