Almost back on the waterways ...

We arrived safely back in UK on Wednesday morning after a very emotional farewell for now at Gisborne airport where many people came to wish us well.  The gorgeous Jade sang a waiata (Maori song) and Haka to us at the airport, and had everyone in tears - we were so honoured, what a brave young woman.

The farewell committee at Gisborne airport - Jade is next to Barry

There are so many things I'll miss about living in New Zealand (Gisborne especially), and I intend to write something around that in the near future ...

Yesterday Barry got the train to Rugby where the lovely Barry from the boatyard collected him and took him to see 'AREandARE' - he's been a little anxious about sighting the engine and just wanted to be sure that it's the boat we want - and luckily he loved it!  So subject to a satisfactory in-water survey on Monday, we'll go ahead with the purchase and be narrowboat owners again - hurrah!  We're not sure as yet when we'll actually take possession or be on board, but it's likely to be in the next couple of weeks I would imagine.  Barry didn't take any photos of the boat surprisingly, he said he wanted to savour the time talking to her current owner and looking around - there's enough lovely pictures on the ABNB website.

Waiting for the train, all wrapped up against the cold ...

Will the blog name change people have asked?  I hope so, we just have to work out how that happens and if we can keep the blogs we've written to date as nbnorthernpride, and just re-direct people - does anyone know how we do that?  Any information gratefully received.

The temperature change from Monday last week of around 29 degrees C, to today of around 0 degrees C has its challenges, but nothing we weren't expecting, and Barry is loving seeing the snow!  We're off to the Lake District today with my three sisters and their partners, and my parents for my mum's 80th birthday tomorrow and my dad's 93rd on 30th March. 

From this ...

... to this 

It's all coming together, saving the best till last ...

"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision." 

W. Clement Stone

Well we're definitely taking concrete steps and our vision is becoming a reality!  The elephant that has been seeming so large over the past few months, weeks and days, now appears to be shrinking - we've been eating it piece by piece.

I'm almost finished packing up the boxes that we'll be shipping - how on earth we still have so much stuff after we've let go and sold so much is beyond me!  It's taking a lot of willpower to keep reducing our belongings down to the absolute (honest Barry!) essentials.  The remainder of our furniture will be taken this week - so by Friday we'll have very little left, apart from items the new owners have bought.  We're so lucky to have lovely people coming to live in our house and Suki, our cat, is staying too.

We had an awesome leaving party at the Hospital Social Club last Friday night arranged by some friends ...

The hall was decked out in red, white and blue with a few All Blacks flags too - what amazing friends we have, we're very lucky.

Next weekend I am flying to Auckland for my Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching Graduation which is awesome - it's been a long journey to achieve this, in time, money and commitment, but it's been so worthwhile.  I have two more clients to get to complete my 100 hours of case studies, but I'm waiting until we get to UK for that or it will be too disjointed.

And the very best news is WE'VE BOUGHT A BOAT!  Well, we've put a deposit down subject to survey.  Barry came home last Friday with the details and said it's the closet he's seen to the boat we've been searching for - and after some deliberation and the fantastic Captain Ahab taking the time to visit her in person and report back to us, we decided to go for it!  

She's called 'AREandARE', which we pronounced in a variety of ways, until we discovered it actually says R and R!  So apt, we're very pleased.

We'll be seeing many of you in the very near future ...

So close, yet so far away ...

“The Unknown is scary, the Unknown can also be exciting. Your life could change in an instant anytime. But sometimes, that change is the best thing that will ever happen to you. Maybe I don’t have to know what my fate is to know that everything will be okay. Maybe the not knowing is how we move forward. Wherever I’m headed, I know it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.” ~ Susane Colasanti

Well it's less than three weeks to go now before we fly to England for the next exciting chapter in our lives!  Lots of things are moving, one is stubbornly staying the same ...

Selling ezimade seemed like it was going to be easy from the moment Barry opened the shop. He had a list of people who came in saying how amazing it was and how much they'd considered doing just what he had but not quite had the courage/got round to it, and would be interested in buying the business once he was ready to sell.

A few of these people have been in and talked about buying, but to date no-one has made an offer or made any sort of commitment. Why not?  It's such a great business, and is growing daily, I can't figure out where the blockage is. Barry has now listed it on Trade Me - so check it out and if you know anyone interested get them to call him asap! He did call a Real Estate Agent last week and met up with him - but was unconvinced that they would be committed enough or work hard enough to earn the ridiculous sum of money in commission they charge for selling a business.

It's OK, we have someone who will manage the shop once we leave if it's not sold, so we're not panicking, but it would be so much better to be able to let it go and move forward. However, Barry has to return to NZ in August anyway to apply for his visa, so maybe he's meant to come back and sell it then?

In the meantime, we've had another garage/yard sale:

So much 'stuff'!

This one wasn't quite as successful as the first one, but a lot of the same people came. Additionally, during the afternoon I discovered that someone had 'walked away' with a set of golf clubs that had been at the back of the house - Barry's mum's. I was initially angry that someone would do such a thing, then realised that it wouldn't help anything by giving my energy to that, and turning it around saw that whoever took them must be pretty desperate to have to steal from someone else, so it actually made me feel very lucky - so thank you thief!

The weekend before this, we had the auction for Barry's photography. It was such a fun afternoon, and all but I think two of his pictures sold to the people that came, and a few telephone bidders. Since then so many people who didn't manage to come for a variety of reasons have said how much they wish they had, and those who bought his pictures keep saying how much they love them. So it's all good, Barry will be remembered in Gisborne for a long time to come - and he saw how much people value his work as it was converted into cash.

Lee and Alice get Barry's most prized and treasured shot - a country lane near to West Felton, UK, taken in 2007

Sally buys so many photos - and adores them!

Gavin the amazingly audacious auctioneer - what a star!

Jeremy, Jim and Kerri - some of the beautiful people who bidded (I know, it's not a proper word!) and bought!

Our furniture is slowly moving out of the house, bit by bit, and with the photos gone too it's starting to look empty and we are 'letting go' of it, feeling grateful we've lived somewhere so amazing even for a short time, and looking forward so much to travelling to UK and buying another narrowboat. That's what keeps us going, knowing that we WILL get where we want to be, despite the challenges, and then there will be other lovely journeys to plan and look forward to.

Barry has taken some things to his daughter Jamie in Hamilton and will take some to Tom in Wellington in a couple of weeks. He isn't saying goodbye for ages to them yet, because he knows he'll be back in August and be here until he gets his UK visa. Leaving his mum will be something else to challenge us both though - but we can call her and hopefully Skype her with the help of Barry's brother Ray ...

Of course it's through our struggles that we most grow - if life was simple and easy all the time it would be boring don't you think?