Narrowboat AREandARE

From the 2009 & 2010 tantalising tales, traumas and stunning photographs of Barry (photographer) and Sandra (writer) from New Zealand aboard NB 'Northern Pride', to the stories of their 2013 return journey, purchase of 'AREandARE', progress on sustaining their live aboard continuous cruiser lifestyle, and Barry's quest to gain residency and 'Indefinite Leave to Remain' in UK ...

Sunday, 12 February 2012

A Busman's holiday - 12 months to countdown now ...

Sunday is Barry's 'day of rest', his only time away from ezimade each week.  So guess what he does on this day most weeks?  Yep, you got it, he goes down to the laundry brewery downstairs and plays with his numerous concoctions!  He calls it research, such a hard life ...



To be fair, he also cut the grass today and chopped down the neighbours' privet trees - hurrah we have so much more light coming into our kitchen window!  The neighbours are actually selling up, so the tenants have moved out and Barry asked the owner if he could remove said privet trees which cause hay fever, and he agreed.  Of course our other incentive was to increase the visibility of our house from the road, as we'll be putting it on the market in September.  We're hoping that number 4 Hillview Terrace sells for a good price which will help ours too ...

Talking of selling up, congratulations to Paul and Elaine from The Manly Ferry who have just sold their house and hope to be back in UK at the end of March!  Shame we'll probably pass you in the air on our way back to New Zealand on 27 March, but good luck and we'll be watching excitedly as you begin your new life on the waterways of Britain.  We're so pleased for you both.

We've just over three weeks now before we come back for our brief visit, and we're very excited.  It'll be mostly visiting family (including our gorgeous new grandson), but we could just squeeze in a visit to Captain Ahab and Belle at some point for a narrowboat fix - watch this space!!!

And of course, if all goes to plan, it's just twelve months until we're on our way back to the waterways, so the countdown is definitely on - 20 days just won't be nearly long enough in March.

It's not so bad here though, last weekend I spent at a place 40 minutes from us, called the Haurata Country Retreat.  It's an amazing place, no-one for miles around, plenty of sheep and cows watching and wondering what's going on, and incredible views.




Somewhere in the distance is Gisborne ...

2 comments:

  1. I might be up that way when you get here.

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  2. Kia ora Maafi - let us know where you are and who knows, we may just get to catch up for a quick pint!

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