7th September - new HOME

R picked up the new house keys from the solicitor on Friday morning. She moved some boxes from the Apartment during the day.

I took an early flight home from Wellington in the afternoon and helped move some boxes but we stayed a final night in the apartment as our beds were being delivered on Saturday morning.

J & I went over early to take delivery of the beds but they had already been delivered and were stacked up at the front of the house!

Over the remainder of Saturday, we moved the rest of the boxes. We had arrived in New Zealand and Napier with 2 suitcases each but we had accumulated much more since then.

First night sleeping in new home was Saturday night. We woke to huge volume of sound from the birdsong in the surrounding trees and shrubs. Some of the shrubs obviously suit nectar feeders as we have several varieties of nectar feeding birds including tuis!

Monday was spent organising the rooms before delivery of all our furniture, clothes and other stuff on Tuesday.

The delivery truck arrived about 8.45am and they were unloaded by 3pm!!! Much faster than the loading process in Parkgate!!!!!

Our garage is full of at least 60 white boxes all vaguely labelled. The process of unpacking is very daunting at this stage! When you travel this far and exist on the contents of 2 suitcases plus some extras for just under a year, it is a big change to be faced with the responsibility for the remainder of your possessions again!

Most stuff was undamaged… my golf clubs were lost during the cleaning process in Auckland and never found. Some of the furniture was dented but it was mostly ok. Two of my woodworking machines were damaged and I will have to get replacement bits from the manufacturer in Switzerland. Some of the kitchenware, like the coffee-maker seem to be bleached by heat/light. Possibly the container was cooked as it crossed the equator. Maybe it was on top of the boat!! !

All in all not too bad for travelling so far and being in storage in Auckland for 9 months.

Unfortunately I had to return to work on Wednesday 12th. Very frustrating when there is so much to unpack!