Crikey! It’s now Tuesday morning. It’s only 4 days since we left Dunedin (formerly known as Home), it seems a long time ago. Time to recap…,
Last Wednesday was a day of finishing up. It was a lovely Dunedin day, a good day for a last one. Packing up occupied the day, and trying to finish a few things off. We had a lovely meal out out at the Lonestar with my three children, and then it was home again to carry on the packing up. It just went on on and on. We had a plane to catch, so just had to keep going. Plus the tennants were starting to move in on Thursday morning!
Wyn got a couple of hours sleep from 4am, it seemed a good idea for someone to be capable of driving. I carried on, slowly and steadily right through the night. There were a couple of trips down to the storage locker. Wyn rejoined the fray by 7am Thursday. Somehow we got ourselves out by a bit after 8am – with four large suitcases. Air New Zealand has new luggage rules now, a second suitcase up to 25kg costs $15. So we took 4 large ones, with a total of around 70kg for only $30 extra. Then it was a quick trip across town to pick up my sister who kindly offered to take us out to the airport. We made it out there with about 15minutes to spare, got checked in, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We were done, in lots of ways, and on our way. It was a direct flight to Auckland, another relief. I managed a few minutes sleep somewhere along the way, despite two cups of coffee, and was feeling OK by the time we got to Auckland before mid-day. Then we picked up our rental stationwagon, switched on Nev the Nav, told him to find Traillite in Pukekohe and headed off out into Auckland traffic.
At Traillite we were shown to our new motorhome – with lots of anticipation and excitement. It was all a bit overwhelming for a start – so much new stuff to take in. She wasn’t quite finished – a couple of the finishing touches weren’t completed. So we weren’t quite rendered speechless. Nevertheless, it was a magic moment, meeting our new home. It was a busy afternoon getting an orientation, and sorting a few things out.
Then we worked out that we needed to get to Daily Freight in Penrose to pick up the boxes we’d sent up. So off we went back out into the traffic, expecting an easy trip in there, and a worse one back. Unfortunately it was the opposite. Traffic crawled on the motorway, and time ticked by – they closed at 5.30pm. It was nervewracking – would we make it in time? Would the traffic free up enough for us to get through. Nev said it was only a kilometer to go, and that took about 10 minutes. We were a few minutes late, but the team at Daily Freight were wonderful, they could not have been more helpful. So we got our 5 cartons loaded up, and headed back to Pukekohe., very relieved.
We spent the night in the Traillite yard, after a trip to the supermarket for provisions. And what fun we had, unloading our boxes and suitcases, and working out where stuff could go. By this stage we were starting to get more familiar with everything, and realising more and more how pleased we were with everything. Finally we were exhausted, and it was time for sleep.
Then Friday, after a lovely sleep, we woke to our first morning in our new home. And started to appreciate it all over again. It really was everything we’d hoped for. The morning zoomed by with putting stuff away and sorting out a few things. Then we borrowed the work’s ute to take the rental car back to the airport. The afternoon back at the Traillite yard was more sorting out, with a few last-minute additions and fixing. We ran out of afternoon, and abandoned thoughts of driving north, the thought of going back on the motorway in Friday rush hour was not an inviting one. Instead a leisurely drive across to Miranda seemed much more appealing. So we drove off the yard about 5pm, and headed out for the first trip.