New Years Day always invites reflection but this one feels heavier than most. A full calendar year has passed since we returned to Perth after time away. In many ways life has resumed. In other ways it still feels unsettled as though the ground has not quite stopped moving.
Coming home was supposed to feel like a reset. Familiar roads. Familiar routines. Familiar faces. Instead it has been a slow recalibration. A reminder that returning is not the same as reversing time. Life moves on while you are away and when you come back you slot into something that looks the same but feels different.
For Kango Anywhere this moment matters. The site has always been about freedom for adventure but also about the realities that sit underneath it. Work housing money family and the tension between movement and stability. New Years Day 2026 feels like a good time to put some of that into words.
This is a factual recount of the last twelve months. No grand conclusions. Just an honest record of where we landed after coming home and what questions are still open as the next year begins.
One Year Back in Perth
Returning to Perth after time away is disorienting in subtle ways. The city is familiar enough that nothing feels new but changed enough that nothing feels quite settled.
The first few months were spent re establishing routines. Sorting logistics. Re entering systems that are invisible until you leave them. Medicare. Banks. Utilities. School calendars. Social expectations. These things feel heavy after a period where daily life was simpler and more self directed.
There is also the psychological shift. Travel stretches time. Each month away feels dense with experiences. Coming back compresses time again. Weeks pass quietly. The days look similar. The sense of progress is harder to feel even if on paper things are moving forward.
Being back for a full year has not erased that contrast. It has simply made it clearer. This is not a complaint. It is an observation. Normal life is not bad. It is just structured in a way that feels sharper once you have lived without many of those structures.
Winter in Dunsborough, Western Australia
One of the more grounding decisions we made was relocating for five months to a short term rental in Dunsborough in the second half of 2025. It was not a holiday move. It was still work. Still routines. Still responsibilities. But the environment mattered.
Living in Dunsborough created space to breathe while still being anchored in Western Australia. The pace is slower. The geography is open. The ocean is always present and the whales roam free. Even when days were full of work the setting softened the edges.
At the same time it was impossible to ignore the housing reality. Dunsborough housing prices are high even by Western Australian standards. Short term rentals command a premium. Buying is out of reach for many locals and newcomers alike. The coastal lifestyle comes with a cost that is increasingly detached from local incomes.
That contrast was instructive. It highlighted how distorted the Australian housing market has become and how lifestyle choices are increasingly constrained by capital rather than preference.
The five months worked as a circuit breaker. They did not solve the broader question of where and how to live long term. But they made the transition year more manageable.
Back to Perth for Christmas and Birthdays
By December we were back in Perth for Christmas and birthday festivities. Family time matters and these anchor points pull you back regardless of where you have been or where you think you might go next.
There is comfort in familiar rituals. Summer heat. Long daylight hours. Backyard gatherings. But there is also a sense of compression. Many obligations clustered into a short window. Catch ups that feel both meaningful and rushed.
This period reinforced a recurring theme of the year. Home is not a single place or moment. It is a series of overlapping responsibilities and relationships. You do not return to it fully formed. You negotiate it piece by piece.
Australia Housing at All Time High Prices
It is impossible to write about settling back into Australian life without addressing housing. Prices remain at or near all time highs across much of the country. Western Australia has not been immune. Perth and regional hubs like Dunsborough reflect the same pressures seen nationally.
Some observations from the past year
• Rent is expensive and competitive even outside capital city cores
• Short term accommodation fills gaps but at a high monthly cost
• Buying feels increasingly disconnected from median incomes
• Mobility is constrained by availability not just affordability
For anyone returning from overseas or attempting to re establish after time away the barrier is immediate. Housing is not a backdrop. It is a dominant variable that shapes every other decision.
This reality feeds into the broader difficulty of settling back into normal life. Stability now requires a level of capital or long term commitment that is harder to justify once you have experienced flexibility elsewhere.
Working Remotely Through A2A Consulting
On the work front the past year has been defined by remote delivery. A2A Consulting has continued operating largely online with engagements that do not require daily physical presence. This has been a stabilising factor during a transitional year.
Remote work has allowed location flexibility within Australia. It made the Dunsborough relocation possible. It reduced friction during periods of change. It also reinforced a long held belief that many knowledge based roles do not need to be tied to a specific office or city.
For those interested in the professional side of this transition more information about the consulting work sits at a2aconsulting.com.au.
At the same time remote work has limits. It does not fully replace the social texture of in person collaboration. It can blur boundaries between work and personal time. And it raises ongoing questions about where value is created and captured in a system that is increasingly abstract.
Still it remains one of the few levers that meaningfully increases personal agency in a high cost environment.
The Difficulty of Settling Back Into Normal Life
This is perhaps the hardest part to articulate without drifting into abstraction. Settling back is not about logistics. Those can be solved. It is about identity.
Time away changes how you measure days and success. It reduces tolerance for performative busyness. It exposes how much of normal life is shaped by inertia rather than intention.
After a year back the feeling persists
• Routine can feel constraining even when it is comfortable
• Long term planning feels heavier after periods of mobility
• The gap between what is possible and what is practical is more visible
• Contentment requires more conscious effort
None of this is unique. Many people experience it after extended travel or life transitions. But it is rarely discussed in practical terms. Settling back is work. Emotional cognitive and structural.
Acknowledging that does not mean rejecting stability. It simply means approaching it with open eyes.
Kango Anywhere and the Space Between Travel and Home
Kango Anywhere has always existed in the space between movement and grounding. The past year has reinforced why that space matters.
Not everyone wants permanent travel. Not everyone wants permanent settlement. Most people live somewhere in between negotiating phases of mobility and rootedness over time.
The stories that emerge from that middle ground are often the most useful. They deal with trade offs. With friction. With the cost of choices that look attractive from the outside.
This New Years Day reflection fits squarely there. Not a highlight reel. Not a manifesto. Just a checkpoint.
Looking Toward 2026
As 2026 begins the questions feel more important than the answers.
What does stability look like in an environment where housing is volatile and expensive
How much location flexibility is enough
How does remote work evolve as organisations push and pull on control
What trade offs are worth making for lifestyle versus security
There is no fixed plan yet. Only a sense that intentionality matters more than ever. The past year back in Perth has clarified constraints. The next year will test how those constraints are navigated.
For now New Years Day is enough. A pause. A breath. A recognition that returning home is not an endpoint but another phase of the journey.
If you have followed Kango Anywhere through the travel years and into this quieter chapter thank you. The adventure does not always look like movement. Sometimes it looks like learning how to stand still without losing yourself.
