Seeing faces we may never see again....

Well this is not something we plan to do, but it does come with being “on the road again” (according to Willie Nelson anyway).  And that is where we are, heading for the good life.  It feels as if we have been waiting in limbo for so long, it is hard to remind ourselves that we have spent a lot of the time learning valuable skills and making contacts that will serve us in good stead when we buy our own project farm.

Carly and her dog!

And so we are driving south.  On our way down we popped in to see Carly and her dad’s avocado farm in Bundaberg and catch up, hard to believe it had been 5 years since she was in London with us.

Love that NZ scenery, check out those mountains.

We spent a week over in New Zealand helping Cor’s parent’s clean out their apartment in Christchurch, and got to see Casey and Natasha, plus spend a couple of days with our niece and nephew.

Caleb and Emily show promising climber skills

Caleb having a ball

Since then we have had a great few days in Brisbane spending time with friends and family (my baby sister!).  We picked up the trailer we ordered made and unpacked our storage locker.  12 years that stuff had been in there!  Two loads of rubbish went to the dump, including lots of mouldy clothes and shoes that we will never wear again.  A nice reminder of just how horribly I used to dress (my casual wear style could euphemistically be called “reformed skater boy”).  We have named the trailer “Taylor”, so that together with Chuck the Truck we can call them Chuck Taylor.

It had to be big enough to fit two cows..... and all our junk.

Chuck Taylor explanation for those who don't get it..... actually it doesn't make that much sense, but it rhymes.

We had a fun time catching up with our friends with kids as well as those who aren’t so encumbered, and it was amazing that everyone could make the effort to see us in the limited time window that we had.  It was great to see you all.  Sarah and Vince even promised us details of someone who lives just up the road from where we are looking to buy.  He dives for crayfish and abalone, so has immediately moved to the top of my “must get to know” list.  We received many assurances of visits, some will happen, some may not, but we know that we certainly won’t be getting too lonely down there on the “south island”.

With Kate and Kevin!

We popped into Sydney for a couple of days with Cor’s uncle Robert on his farm in Vineyard, tapping into his extensive poultry breeding experience and picking up more of Cor’s extensive library.  I don’t know how the hell we are going to fit all of her books into just one house, but it is going to need a full size library (she has requested one with those ladders on wheels).  And speaking of getting clucky this weekend we are with my sister for my niece’s first birthday, no doubt turning me into a wannabe parent, for a few days at least!

Clucky, me?

On 15 August we arrive back in Tasmania.  We will be farmsitting for a couple of friends for a few weeks, and after that we have decided that while we are looking for a property to buy we are going to rent a house.  Any place we likely buy will likely not have a house, and renting a place will give us time to get a cottage built, and also allow us to have our shipping container delivered to access all those things that we shipped from London.  It will give us an address, allowing us to transfer our drivers licences, vehicle registrations, and most importantly, medical info so that I can have my sinus things sorted in Hobart.

So that is where we are.  A week from Tasmania, accelerating towards the good life with the mainland in the rearview mirror.

Supposed to be driving into the future (but in reality just driving a moving truck in NZ)

Some photos from our catch ups.....