Back to Dunedin – 26 February

We woke to a sunny morning. It was time to move on. We’d arranged jobs in the Bay of Plenty starting on 23 March, and we had stuff to sort out in Dunedin. We’d had a great few weeks in Central Otago – explored lots of new places and were starting to get fitter. Now it was time to clear out the storage locker and get rid of more stuff and sort out what we’d need for up north.
We headed off in the early afternoon, and Wyn had her first go driving the whole enterprise – motorhome and the car on behind – from Luggate to Cromwell. Lunch was pies and cakes from Jimmys in Roxburgh. Wyn drove again from Milton to Wingatui where we parked up at the racecourse, our home for the next few nights.
Dentist and Visits Friday 27 February
I had arranged an appointment at 10am at the dentist, bits had been falling off a tooth. It turned out it needed a root canal filling and fixing – luckily he could do it all later that day. There was time for a haircut, and I remembered I’d dropped an amplifier off to be fixed three months before, and luckily it was fixed and waiting. I picked up Wyn who went to visit a friend while I had my tooth done. Then it was time to drop some stuff off at the storage locker (the one we had to empty!) and take some photos of things we wanted to sell on Trademe. We picked up my kids who came to stay for the weekend, and returned to Wingatui. Wyn went to stay with a friend in Mosgiel – the visit started with a bike ride on Friday evening.
Saturday 28 February
Ross and the kids visited the Farmers Market, and later at Wingatui his older son came out for tea as well. He was furnishing his flat, and was happy to take some drawers and the 29″ TV Ross was going to sell – saving quite a lot of Trademe work. Wyn’s friend was singing in the park at Mosgiel, and later they went to a Stars in Their Eyes concert in Dunedin.
Sunday 1 March
Wyn enjoyed a leisurely morning with her friend, including a walk to a cafe for coffee, and a lovely lunch. Ross picked her up in the afternoon, and then it was time to drop his children back home. Having decided to give several things to my son, the only thing I had photos of to sell on Trademe was a nice drop-side table. It’s hard work getting stuff on Trademe, sorting out photos and getting descriptions. And it had to be a short auction, as we were running out of time.
Getting on the job Monday 2 March
So began a very busy and productive week – sorting out and catching up. I started with a physio appointment – for my elbow from the orchard work. It was clearly an occupational overuse problem. I was surprised to find it was not covered by ACC. I guess it was not an accident – but it seems strange that an employer can expose employees without much comeback. Anyway, I paid my money, and got a diagnosis of tennis elbow! And some exercises to strengthen it. Wyn jacked up a hair appointment, and I shot up to Opoho to get photos of my dining chairs and my old road bike – for Trademe. I also loaded up a couple of chairs for giving away – anything to reduce the pile! The Bargain Barn was happy to take the chairs – yahoo! I dropped Wyn back at Wingatui, and she biked off to Mosgiel to get stuff for tea. I went back to the storage locker to load up the drawers to deliver to my son. This involved much shifting and sorting – it would be great to reduce the clutter. My son came back with me to help with the 29″ TV, these are not things to be taken lightly! Finally I returned and loaded up my hi-fi stereo system, including the newly fixed amplifier – he’d agreed to house them as well. At last the locker was starting to look a bit emptier. Wyn was entertaining friends by the time I got back to Wingatui at 9pm, and tea for me was later still.
We move into town – Tuesday 3 March
It was time to reduce the travelling into and out of town – so we decided to move to the camping ground in Leigh Valley. We dropped the bikes off first thing, and then dropped Suzi off at Cooke Howlisons for her 5000km service. We went back to the storage place to load up stuff for under Wyn’s house. This involved checking through boxes of stuff – and took ages. Wyn dropped me back to pick up Suzi – I was then going to take her to the auto electricians for some minor fixing and checking. However, coincidentally he met the auto electrician there to fix one of their trucks, so it was agreed there was not much going to happen with Suzi that day. So I took her to the camping ground and got things set up. Wyn went and visited a friend, and then we dropped stuff off at the house. Ross’s two children came for tea – Wyn had made some great pizzas. Plus we had a couple of games of pool in the dining room. After dropping the kids home there was time for a sauna, a hot end to another busy and productive day. The table had sold for only about $20, but the interest in the chairs was better, and they went for $130. The old bike was the most sought after of all, it went for $155. You just never know with Trademe.
Busy busy busy – Wednesday 4 March
Things moved into another gear by Wednesday. Suzi went to the auto electricians, and had to wait. Ross sorted out some family stuff, and had lunch with his sister. Wyn went to Opoho and sprayed weeds, and Ross helped his son start off his application for his student allowance. Suzi got sorted and picked up, and we zoomed back to the camping ground for showers and a breather. Then we ordered pizzas on line, and picked them up on the way across town to tea with friends.
Busy busy busier – Thursday 5 March
I biked off to a forklift driving course – for an OSH certificate and a F licence endorsement. This took much of the day, involving a lot of theory and a practical test of forklist driving and precision manoevering. It was a bit scary, but I passed and am now have another notch on my licence. Meanwhile Wyn tackled the washing again – it never seems to cease! Wyn zoomed around between the storage locker and Suzi. I went back to the storage locker at 5:30pm to meet the bike buyer, collected a computer and dropped it off to my son, and got back to the storage place to meet the buyer of the table and chairs with a minute to spare! Then I was able to load everything else into the car – the locker was empty at last! On the way out I met a friend across the road – great to catch up. Back at the camp Wyn was starting the BBQ tea. We walked down the road and visited a friend of Wyn’s – a lovely end to a very productive and successful day.
Leaving town – Friday 6 March
We were up at 8am (hey – that’s early for us :-), and packing up to leave the camp and town. We dropped off the last of the stuff from the storage locker under the house in Opoho. I called into my old work place for a lovely morning tea and catchup there.  Then it was back to the camping ground to put the bikes on the car and hook up, and get going. We finally got away about 12:30pm. We stopped at Oamaru for a coffee and lunch down by the sea front. We watched a man loading giant boulders onto a big truck, to be dumped over the edge of the sea to try to hold it back.

It got windy and overcast past Timaru. We stopped at Ealing at 5:45pm, feeling good about how much we’d got done in our week in Dunedin. Plus we managed to catch up with a few family and friends. There’s never enough time, especially with so much to do, but we’d done a fair bit. There were yummy BBQ chops for tea and a couple of G & Ts, and time later to watch Looking Good Naked on TV1.

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