Goodbye Melbourne — The Lost Girls

It feels like I was writing about moving to Melbourne not so long ago. And that's because it wasn't so long ago! I lived in that incredible city for almost 6 months but sadly I had to up and leave again. It wasn't part of the plan, but after being made redundant I applied for the perfect role for me back home, almost on a whim, and was offered it less than a week later. I moved to Melbourne to try and find a killer job that would be a good move for my career, but turns out the right one for me is back here in NZ.

LIVING THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM?

Australia has been luring Kiwis across the ditch for many, many years now, but was living the Australian dream all it cracked up to be? For me, no. But I'm just one person, I met so many kiwis in Melbourne who said they'd only stay for a year or two and have ended up staying for several, and they have great jobs and absolutely love it. I wish I could say I was one of those Kiwis because I do love Melbourne and could live there for a long time, but for me it just didn't work out this time around sadly.

I was job hunting intensively for a month for a job in my field (digital marketing/social media) and when I finally found one, it didn't turn out to be right for me. 4 months later I was made redundant because of staff cutbacks and started the gruelling process of job hunting all over again. It mightn't have been the best way to go about it, but I don't regret it at all. I made some friends for life, experienced some amazing restaurants and cafes, and took in some of the stunning local sights.

LESSONS LEARNED

Melbourne is always voted "most liveable city" for a reason. It's a great city to experience, even though it's not a huge tourist hotspot.
There are great jobs in Melbourne for the digitally minded folks out there, but there are also a lot of digitally minded folks looking for those great jobs, and it's very competitive.
Friends become family. I didn't get homesick, and I put that down to having an amazing group of friends.
There are more kiwis in Melbourne than in Auckland. It seemed. Seriously, half my friend group were kiwis (I only knew 2 beforehand), half my netball team, and a quarter of my workplace.
IKEA is a life saver for someone with no money and no car - they delivered pretty much all the furniture in our apartment for $59 and carried it up 3 flights of stairs for us!
Aussies aren't half bad.