Welcome to navigator…

Hey there and welcome – it’s great you could drop by.

What’s this site about?

Essentially it’s about a sea-change, but it’s also about adventure and exploration.

Let’s back-track a little…don’t worry, I won’t prattle on for too long.

In October 1998, when our daughter was just 6 months old, we holidayed in Mooloolaba. We loved it so much that we kept coming back. We’ll move here when the time is right, we promised ourselves.

Over the years we continued to travel, yet we also continued to be drawn back to Mooloolaba. One day, we kept telling ourselves. One day, when the time is right, we’ll move here.

It was hubby who first suggested early in 2015 that maybe that time was now. Things weren’t great at his job, and they definitely weren’t great in mine. No, I said, we’re too young. Two more years. I’ll be ready in two more years.

The months passed and things got tougher. In July last year, I changed jobs and in the week I had between roles we went back to Mooloolaba – ‘maybe the time was right now?’ he suggested. ‘No, I said, not yet.’

Two weeks later, on an overloaded peak hour bus on the M2, I decided there had to be more to life than spending 3 hours a day getting to and from work. I called hubby and said, ‘ok, maybe now.’ I might have also mentioned that I felt too old to be wasting my life away on a commute. ‘Let’s do it.’

In October I got scared. ‘There’s too much to walk away from,’ I said. ‘My family is here, my job is here.’

‘But we don’t have a life here,’ he argued. ‘You’re always tired – there’s more to life than this,’ he said.

‘Too late,’ said our daughter. ‘I’ve already applied to USC (University of the Sunshine Coast). We’re going.’

After that things moved quickly – and, for the size of what we were doing – relatively painlessly. Our daughter got into the Uni course she wanted, hubby retired from his employer of 37 years, we found the perfect house to live in, and ours here in Sydney sold within 3 weeks.

It really felt like it was meant to be – everyone said so.

The move itself begins this week, but I’ll be splitting my time between Sydney and the Sunshine Coast until Easter.

After that? Well, that’s all part of the adventure – and that’s what this blog is about: an exploration of everything the Sunshine Coast has to offer.

So that’s told you something about the sea-change and this blog, but what has any of that got to do with the sea turtle in the logo? I’m glad you asked.

A tarot reader told me many years ago that I had the sign of the traveller in me – the sea turtle, he said, symbolizes the navigator. He also told me I was descended from travellers – more specifically gypsies. And that part is true. Romany gypsies…not that I told him so.

Perhaps it was a load of whatever, who knows, but it’s stayed with me.

Since then I’ve also learnt that the sea turtle is an important symbol in Polynesian culture and is connected to long life, wellness, fertility, union, family and harmony.

The sea is regarded as both the source of food and also the final resting place – or world beyond. The sea turtle covers both sea and land and, because she returns to the beach of her birth to lay her eggs (through a series of magnetic signatures – whatever that means) there’s a belief that the sea turtle also represents a sort of coming home. I suppose it’s about destination, finding your true north or spiritual home – the sort of return you make after and during your travels to the place you’re meant to be.

Sure, it’s a tad new age-y, but it’s also a pretty cool concept, right?

Anyways, that’s why I’ve called this site navigator and it’s why I’ve used the sea turtle in the logo – because I have the feeling that up here on the Sunshine Coast is where I’m meant to keep returning to.