The Final Push

We left Rangiputa on Monday morning after saying our goodbyes to Tony and Lou and headed south to stay with our friends Tony and Helen in Auckland. Got there early afternoon, and after unloading the car and passing on our food items into the Bacon family pantry and fridge, it was time to start selling stuff off. First was to list our trusty 12V cooler that we bought in December. It’s been a real lifesaver as we’ve travelled. Put it up on Facebook marketplace and had a good offer within 30 minutes. The person who wanted it was as good as their word and showed up at 7:30 that evening. It was karmically correct, he was going to use it for travelling around and on his sailboat!

Next to go was the car. I booked an appointment with Turners to get it appraised on Tuesday, and they came back with an offer that was good enough for us. All up we spent $3000 to have car for 4 months in NZ that took us over 11,000 km, very cheap compared to the alternative. We really liked this little car, it was easy to drive, very economical, and lots of luggage room in the back. I’ll miss it. For our remaining time we get to rely on friends and feet to get around.

We had a few other small bits and pieces we’d collected to make life easier as we travelled, but none that we’re bringing back to Canada. Tony and Helen offered to take it all down to the local Op Shop (think Salvation Army Store or similar) and donate it for us. Some of the things being donated are going full circle, we bought a few of them from various Op Shops around NZ.

We spent the next couple of days taking a breath from travelling. Had a lovely walk up One-Tree Hill for a mid-morning coffee and a shared scone. It’s close to Helen and Tony’s, and a favourite place to walk around.

Our last weekend here was Easter Weekend, and on Good Friday, we headed over to spend a few last days with our friends John and Pip on Waiheke Island. Took the walk-on ferry across, and it was jam packed! Not only was it a 4 day weekend, there was also a Jazz Festival on the Island, so lots going on!

Always love seeing and spending time with them and their 2 Schnauzers, Luka and Coda. Every morning they take them down to the beach for a run, so every morning we were there, we had a nice beach walk.

John had a job he wanted my help with, building a fence along the top of a substantial retaining wall they have along the front of their property as well as along the driveway. He had the treated 6”x 6” (120mm x 120mm) 6 meter long posts. Simple, more or less cut them in half and bolt them to the wall. It all sounded like a reasonably straight forward process until we went to lift one up onto the mitre saw to cut it. It had to weigh the better part of 120kg. So plan B, cut the post long enough to rest on the ground and put the saw on the ground to cut them. The first day we got 2 posts in after mucking around and figuring out what had to be done. Day 2 was much more productive, we got most of the rest of the posts done across the front. Day 3 was a couple of more posts to finish the front, and we got the skirting boards across the bottom. Lots of work, but I really do like working with John, we started doing it many years ago at Ericsson and can still do it today! We got the hardest part done and John can continue on his own for the rest! I did offer to come back and help, all he would have to do is pay for a return business class ticket from Halifax to Auckland so not likely to happen!!!

Back to Auckland Monday afternoon, and today we’re re-packing, getting ready to fly out Wednesday night at 10:00pm. We figured out our travel time again and it’s somewhere around 42 hours of air travel and 19,000 km. By the time we actually get home, it will be around 56 hours total, if all goes well. We should roll into our driveway sometime Friday afternoon.