As school goes back today, for how long who knows given the looming strikes, but as we head back to the office and to school, it’s been interesting to reflect on the past two weeks.

We headed away for the first time in three years – we hadn’t left the country since Covid and closed borders, but we’d heard from everybody who had, how refreshing it is to get out of NZ. How inspiring it is to see how much the rest of the world has moved on. How blinkered and parochial we have become in our own little hermit kingdom.

Our first stop was San Francisco, a lost city full of drugs and homeless people and not much to enthuse a tourist to be honest. It felt edgy and unsafe and made me worried about our next stop – New York – and how much more dangerous and unsafe that may feel.

But how wrong I was. New York is incredible. It feels super safe due to the fact the place is flooded with cops – Police on every corner, and lots of them.

The place moves at a cracking pace, people are focused on what they’re doing and they’re going places. No one gives a crap about what you’re doing or where you’re going, individualism and the pursuit of happiness and success is embraced.

A refreshing change to NZ? Hell yes. I loved every second of it.

In fact we extended our stay by double the nights we’d originally booked. And even then there was still so much more to see and do. It’s an exhilarating city that feels exciting and inspiring all at once. It has get up and go. It’s not introspective and naval gazing. I appreciated the outward focus.

I also like how informed New Yorkers are. They were curious like most Americans about how young our politicians are – given theirs are so elderly. But one cabbie said to us, “your lady leader, the young one, she quit, she couldn’t hack it.. how old’s the new one?”

We said, “oh he’s young too..” The cab driver replied, “yeah but can he hack it?” We explained that he was so far ‘hacking it’ but that an election was coming. He asked what Kiwis thought of Trump. I said ‘well more importantly what do New Yorkers think of Trump?”

He said, “oh they hate him, we all hate him.” Which is not hard to see why, given Trump Tower and the surrounding streets are all cordoned off and crawling with cops and their NYPD cars, making getting down 5th Avenue just that little bit harder.

But I loved New York with a passion, as anyone following my Instagram would’ve seen, I was obsessed with its energy and vibrancy, it makes you feel like anything is possible.

And then we get to London. London has my heart because I lived here and have always loved it and it feels like a second home. I married a Brit, have 3 of his half English children who are all desperate to live here too, it’s spacious and well mannered (mostly) and always such a good time.

They are so amped already for the Coronation, the bunting is going up, the shop windows all have framed portraits of Charles in them, streets have been cordoned off to practice parade routes, it’s got a buzz already.

So I am very happy to be here, very grateful to be here, and all the people who said leaving NZ is good for your soul were right. It is.

It’s been so refreshing to get out. It makes you realise just how introspective we’ve become. It also makes me hope that we can shake our hermit kingdom shackles soon.