Home is where the heart is

It’s been almost 3 years since my husband and I moved to Martinborough.  You could say that although we’re permanent residents, we are by no means locals.  I’ve heard that you have to reside here for around 20 years to be considered ‘local’.  We’re ok with that, we’re patient and have no intention of going anywhere. 

We moved here from Wellington where we lived in an apartment and barely knew anyone else that lived in the building.  Whilst it suited our lifestyle something was missing…….we had no sense of family or community.  We found ourselves spending more time in the Wairarapa, respite from the hustle of the city.  The more we did the more we fell in love with it.  We’re both from Canterbury and the dry hot summers and frosty mornings in winter reminded us of home. 

We started looking for a Wairarapa house, everywhere but Martinborough.  When I suggested to my husband “what about Martinborough” his response was “it’s so out of the way”.  That was my point exactly.  So we spent weekends here and both fell in love with the town we now call home. 

We purchased in Oxford Street and soon found that we had moved into the most amazing, supportive ‘neighbourly’  streets.  Within days we had been welcomed by our immediate neighbours who have now come to be part of our family. 

We had a baby girl in March last year that was born with profound hearing loss and a heart condition that needed major surgery.  It was during this dark and painful time that we truly came to appreciate and value the support of living in such a community and a street such as Oxford Street. 

Whilst away in Starship our ‘family’ of neighbours and new found friends cared for our cat, looked after our house and even built a fire on our return.  Dinner was waiting in the kitchen with instructions on how to cook it.

  With constant trips away for Cochlear implant surgery and habilitation for her hearing, we are constantly gifted fruit, vegetables and flowers.  People call and pop in to see how we’re going.  There is more love and support here than we could have ever imagined. 

We recently celebrated our precious girl’s 1st birthday.  It was not only a celebration of her first year but we wanted to thank all those who had been there with us.  We could not have gotten through the last year without our new family and friends in Martinborough and their unconditional love for us and our baby girl.
I now work full time in Martinborough.  Gone is the 3 hour daily return trip to the city.  ‘Family Tea’ is a frequent occurrence between neighbours where we share a yarn, a laugh, reflect on life and enjoy a wine over dinner.

We love Oxford Street and can’t imagine living anywhere else.  You see Oxford Street has everything.  We have the medical centre, a pub, the Police Station, the park, a hairdresser and even a place to reside when we enter our latter years.  But most of all Oxford Street has love, kindness, friendship and such a sense of family that we could never have found anywhere else.  They say home is where the heart is and our hearts are firmly planted on Oxford Street.