We leave tomorrow!

Tonight is our last night as a family as Australian residents. We have repacked the suitcases this afternoon and are all ready to go. It will be an early morning for us tomorrow as we have to be at the airport by 6.30am! It feels a bit weird that all the talk and organisation is going to become a reality tomorrow - we are moving to a different country!
I found the whole goodbye thing a bit weird as I will be back in Brisbane for the September school holidays (0nly 2.5 weeks away). We went to Unichurch for the last time this morning, this is probably one of the hardest groups of people to say goodbye to as we have known many of our friends there for a long time and it has been our home church for all of our married life so far. It will be a while before we have the same familiarity with church and friends after we move.

Homeless boy...

We went to visit Mel's grandmother the other day seen as we don't get to see her all that often. The kids had lots of fun playing and when it came to be time to go, Granny B asked Ben if he was now going to go home.
"No, I'm going back to Granny W's house."
"Oh, so where's home?"
A slightly confused, thoughtful look.
"I don't know."

No house, no car...

As of last night all we own in Australia is what we have managed to fit in our suitcases. We handed back the keys to our rental last Friday - this was a bit sad as we really liked where the house was located and the people in the neighbourhood (but not the actual house as many of you would already know). And last night the buyer for our car came and picked it up - this was also a bit sad as when we bought the car we were planning on keeping it for a while (definitely longer than 1.5 years) and we enjoyed how we could go anywhere, do anything with it. In the time we owned it we did manage to use it off road a bit including Fraser Island, Upper Portals of Mount Barney, and to get to the Steamers in Main Range National Park (twice - 1 failed and 1 successful attempt). It is a relief to have all the big things sorted out, but it does make the fact we are actually leaving more of a reality (not just a long list of to do jobs like it has been for the past month). With less than a week to go we are now into the procession of 'last' events - last playgroup, last mothers group, last day at work, last bible study, last day at church etc.

Going, going gone...

Our stuff, that is. The removals people came this morning with a container, packed all our stuff into it, and took it away. So I guess we're really going now!

Ekka!!!

I decided that this year we were going to go to the Ekka. Peter has been living in Australia for 12 years now and has never been and neither have the kids. To make the experience as enjoyable and less draining on the finances required a bit of forward planning and preparation. During the week I researched the Showbags to find suitable ones for the kids and ones that I liked. I found that my taste in showbags has definitely changed from the last time I went (sometime in high school). Just looking at all the different ones, I kept thinking as a teenager I would have thought they were really cool, but now I just think a lot of them are just a bag of junk! The night before I also printed out maps, and a bit of a program of the various 'shows' that were happening at different times. I also glad wrapped some cheese and bacon rolls for lunch and packed some snacks.
To make the most of our day we got the kids up and dressed at 7am, hopped in the car, Macca's drive through for breakfast (we decided this was the better meal to spend money on than lunch at the ekka - a hash brown beats a dagwood dog any day!) and then on to the train station to catch a train to the Ekka grounds. First stop was the Main Arena where we watched some horses doing show jumping while we finished breakfast.
Then we hit the Showbag pavilion. Ben wasn't really interested in the showbags, although he found great entertainment in playing his own games with the pictures on the advertising boards (such as picking us all lollipops). Ben got a 'Wiggles' bag, Joanna a Tiny Tots bag, I got the Better Homes and Gardens bag and Peter just got a piece of fudge.
We decided to head to the Animal Nursery next. The kids both had a great time getting up close to all the sheep, goats, calves, chickens, pigs etc. We also saw a cow milking demonstration while we were there. Ben then wanted to play so we went over to 'sideshow alley' and he had a ride on a Merry-go-round except instead of horses there was a tractor, motorbikes, fire engine, digger etc. Ben first chose to ride on a motorbike, but then changed his mind and rode the tractor.
In no time it was time for lunch, we found a shady spot near the band stand to eat. Then it was time for the Ekka essential - the Strawberry Ice-cream!!! Ben really enjoyed his and I must admit mine tasted very good too. For rest time we put the kids in the backpacks (they both fell asleep) and toured the fresh food pavilion tasting quite a few different wines (from wineries in the Granite Belt and Burnett). Afternoon tea consisted of a yummy soft fudge centre cup cake (that we bought from one of the stalls in the pavilion) and then it was time to catch a train home after a big tiring day (that everyone enjoyed).

New toy...

Just got a new toy this morning. Cute isn't it?
Hopefully you'll get to see the results over the next few weeks (months, years?), once I get a card reader which doesn't crash the computer when you insert a SDHC card into it.

We have dates!!

Well there has been a couple of days of madness this week where lots of things have had to happen, but it has started to calm down a bit now. We are happy to say we now have confirmed dates for the shipping company to come pack and take our stuff away. We also have tickets for our flight over (as well as passports for Joanna and Peter). The company has also found a furnished house for us to stay in when we first arrive. So now that all those things are organised, it's time for me to get on with the next things on the list.

So what do the kids think?

People have asked us what the kids think about moving to NZ... so here you go!
Joanna obviously doesn't really know that anything different is happening - as long as Mum and Dad are around, she's happy.
Ben on the other hand is an inquisitive 2 and a half year-old who likes to ask why. Repeatedly. So, when we asked him if he wanted to move to NZ, he looked thoughtful for about half a second and then said "yeah". When told that there was lots places to go bushwalking there, he got really excited and wanted to make sure that Mum and Joanna could come with as well.
Most mornings, Ben asks us what we're doing that day. Usually it's something like going to the park with Rohan, or going to church, or mother's group. Sometimes now he asks "Where are we going today? Are we going to New Zealand?" So we have to say, no, not today Ben. A few more weeks still.
He's also included New Zealand in his playing - I've been told that Newzealandpark is in his room. So now you know!
So he's excited about it, but doesn't really have a clue. As you'd expect for a 2 year-old. As long as Mum and Dad are there...

So where is Hamilton again?

Most of you have probably heard of Hamilton... but aren't entirely sure where it is. Well, it's on the North Island to start with, about an hour and a half south of the bottom of the Auckland sprawl. It's in a region called the Waikato, named after the Waikato River, which is NZ's longest river (which is to say, not very long!). The area is very much farming country - there's at least one huge dairy processing plant just outside Hamilton. The town itself has somewhere around 150 000 people, so it's a reasonable size without being big.
The company I'll be working for has their offices in Hamilton CBD, in one of the biggest buildings there - the building has 11 floors I think, and they're in level 9. From there, apparently you can see to the big mountains in the middle of the North Island - Mt Ruapehu and others. When I was there, it was raining, so we couldn't see much at all! To the west, the coast is about a 45 minute drive while to the east, the coast is slightly further. To the north, Auckland is about 90 minutes away, or the (apparently) beautiful Coromandel Peninsula is about the same distance north-east. So all up, Hamilton is pretty central to some nice stuff. I guess we'll have some exploring to do once we get there :D

The moving planner

Well that's what I feel like my job is at the moment. It's like planning a shot-gun wedding (not that I 've had any experience doing that), but it feels a bit like we're getting married in 6 weeks time with all the different things that need to get options explored, quotes made, bookings made, addresses changed etc.

Surprisingly looking at all the stuff that I had on my to do list for the past week (well since lunchtime Tuesday when we knew we were definitely going), I haven't done too bad. We've organised a combined birthday party/farewell party; applied for Joanna's passport; renewed Peter's passport; got a roadworthy for the car, cleaned it, taken photos of it and put an ad on the internet to sell it; I've got appointments with a number of shipping companies next week coming out to give in-home quotes to pack and ship our stuff; we've set up this blog. The only thing that was on my to do list for this past week that I haven't done is organise cancellation of my gym membership, which I can easily do any day I go to the gym.

The things that can't be done yet that we are eager to have sorted are confirmed dates for our flights and the shipping of our stuff. Unfortunately flights have to wait until Peter and Joanna's passports arrive and shipping has to wait until we get the quotes next week and send them off to the company for them to choose which one to use (they are paying for it).