Rain, rain, go away ...

So we've had the shortest day and we're now looking forward to spring, but in the meantime the heavens keep opening - I hear it's the same in England so it doesn't feel quite so bad!  It's so damp here at the moment, we've had washing on the line for days and the garden looks like a quagmire! 

However, on a rare break in the weather whilst walking up the hill where we live on Sunday, I spotted this gorgeous rainbow heading into 'Poverty Bay', which is the Pakeha name for Gisborne after Captain Cook failed to replenish his supplies when he and his crew landed here in the late eighteen century. 

I've now set up a Facebook page for my 'Holistic Life Coaching' business, which is part of my work for the Diploma as I need to survey people on what they would want from 'online coaching' - do take a look and 'like' the page - the survey will be posted in the next couple of weeks and I need at least 50 replies so fingers crossed.  They say that 'what you give energy to grows and expands' so I'm giving as much energy as I can to my life coaching, whilst juggling all sorts of other balls as we continue to work towards our goal of returning to the waterways.

The drain situation is ongoing, it was unblocked but work still needs to be done - ivy roots have invaded the pipes!  The bathroom is slowly getting finished and the tiler should be coming in the next week or two.  We've not booked our flights yet or applied for Barry's passport, but they're on the 'to do' list again this month ...

I wonder if it's the cold, damp and dark weather that stops us from moving forward as much as we plan to?  Roll on lighter brighter days ...

The best laid plans and a Happy Matariki (Maori New Year)...

There's one thing you can be sure of when you manage a project - there will be variances from the original plan!  Having finally managed to brainstorm all the jobs we'll need to accomplish prior to returning to the canals in 2013, including those things you do to make your house more saleable, yesterday we discovered a blocked drain from the kitchen sink (and horror of horrors, dishwasher!). The plumber hasn't yet discovered where the blockage is from, but we're suspecting it could be a rather large bill and not one we've budgeted for.

However, that's just money and 'stuff' that has to be done.  What's much worse now is that Barry's mum is poorly (more so than ever before), and in hospital, almost certainly she had a stroke on Sunday morning, and all we can do is take it a day at a time as to what the future holds for her.  Just two months ago she bought herself a brand new car (she felt sorry for Barry when I was working away and he was travelling the ten minutes to work by bike, so gave him her 'old' car, bless her!), was playing golf, and going to line dancing each week - at an incredible 88 years of age.  Her mother lived until she was 103, so she'll be most disappointed if she doesn't manage the same or a similar achievement.  Last December she travelled by herself to Australia, to visit her youngest son and daughter, so to now see her so unwell is heartbreaking.

It's also been unseasonably cold here in Gisborne, which doesn't help matters, but the shortest day is tomorrow and it's also Matariki here in New Zealand, which is the Maori New Year and the name of a group of stars known as Pleiades star cluster or 'The Seven Sisters'.  It seems logical that we should be looking at a New Year when the nights are long and winter is well and truly upon us - the same time of year that it is celebrated in the northern hemisphere.

So we get to consider New Year's resolutions twice in this beautiful country.  Mine will be around trusting the universe that all that's happening is as it's meant to be, that I be mindful of how easily I can become passionate about midwifery work to the detriment of other, more important things in my life (i.e. people such myself and Barry!), and to not be afraid of the challenges and changes which we'll be facing over the next year as we begin the enormous changes necessary to move from one hemisphere to the other.

We are greatly inspired by so many lovely people who contacted us when we were enjoying the canals aboard Northern Pride in 2009 and 2010, and have completed or almost completed the journey before us as a long-term prospect - Tom and Jan from narrowboat Waiouru who have had to overcome so many hurdles on their road to the cut from Australia last year, Paul and Elaine from NB The Manly Ferry (aka Narrowboat Caxton) who got to England this year from Manly (who we had the pleasure of visiting there twice) and of course Elly and Mick from NB 'yet to be determined', who sadly I read are also experiencing the challenge of a sick mum as they are almost ready to travel to the UK - our hearts and hope are with you.

Happy New Year!

Getting to grips with self-employment and Barry’s visa application …

Every year it seems that time moves by more quickly – we're already almost half way though 2012 and it doesn’t seem that long since the New Year!  In just over a week it’ll be the shortest day and longest night here in the Southern Hemisphere – which is good news for us as it means our days will then become longer - possibly not so good for those of you reading from the Northern hemisphere, where you seem to have sadly lost your summer weather once again.

Last time I wrote I'd recently taken on my new role as project coordinator for the maternity quality and safety programme in Gisborne, and it's been full-on for the past 6 weeks..  I know that if I continue in this role until we return to England, it's definitely going to be one that that takes up a considerable proportion of my time.

My concern here, as I know is an issue for many people, is around maintaining a good work/life balance and not allowing one aspect to ‘take over’ in my passion to fulfil my obligations to the maternity services here by taking on the role.  The plan had been to concentrate more on my Life Coaching this year, whilst getting our house ready to sell and de-cluttering our enormous array of ‘stuff’ that we have both managed to acquire.  The Life Coaching is still incredibly important to me, as it's how I intend to earn a modest income when we return to UK, and I shall make time to complete my diploma and see lots of lovely clients for my case study hours as well as those who continue on a maintenance basis - and fit in some fun things too, like going to Samoa for a week in August and two of my sisters coming for a three week holiday in November!  So it's not all work and no play ...

On another positive side, the project post is on a contractual basis, so I’m paid an hourly rate, which was the only way I could work it in with my other commitments (as is my locum midwifery post at Te Puia Springs), so I’m having to get to grips with the concept of self-employment for the first time in my life – it’s certainly different to someone just paying you a salary, having deducted whatever needs to be taken out and then you can spend your money however you wish!  Now I’m learning how to invoice, whether or not I need to be GST registered (similar to VAT in UK), what receipts I have to keep and what spending I have to keep account of, a log book for my car journeys and a monthly ‘cash book’ that I must keep to give to the accountant at the end of the year, if not before.  It feels like keeping accounts is a part time job in itself!

Last week I finally managed to overcome my (irrational?) fear of visiting an accountant – taking the easy option and going to Barry’s longstanding firm, and bless him he came with me to give in his end of year books so I had his hand to hold!  Now I just have to do the paperwork for last year’s income I earned that wasn’t taxed, from being a midwifery mentor, hiring TENS machines, renting our house out as a holiday home, and Life Coaching.

The great thing is that when we come back onto the British canal system in 2013, I'll be so au fait with self employment that I won’t be in the least fazed by then working out how to do my accounting in another country – or at least that’s the plan!

Barry's downloaded the visa application for his UK residency, and he’ll be working on completing that and probably visiting the Embassy in Wellington in the next few months. He was stumped on the first question “What date do you arrive in the UK?”!!!  So it looks like we’ll need to bite the bullet and book our tickets well in advance, before we even put the house on the market, and then we'll have a date to work our ‘project plan’ on – seeing the vision and working backwards to break it all down into manageable steps and prevent it all feeling so overwhelming.

In the meantime, here's a few photos Barry took while we were there in March:

Swanning about on The River severn, Worcester

Sandra (with a bit of M & S shopping!) and her mum and dad

An unusual lock paddle pulley system at Maunsel Lock, on the Bridgewater  and Taunton Canal

We're hoping to book tickets to arrive towards the end of March 2013, before my mum’s 80^th birthday on 24th, so we have a nine-month gestation period to grow our dream baby!

Watch this space …

What is this life, if, full of care ...

Apologies everyone, since we've returned from our break in UK our lives have been crazily busy and I haven't managed to make time to post a blog.  Barry's still working hard at 'ezimade' six days a week, and although he's dabbled in editing his photos from England he's not yet quite managed to post any - I'm sure he will one day ...

In the meantime, I was offered the opportunity of leading a local maternity project to coordinate locally the national 'Maternity Quality and Safety Programme'.  Having voluntarily relinquished my previous senior post and decided I didn't want to take on such a responsibility again I was a little taken aback as our plans for returning to UK in March 2013 certainly didn't include such a big challenge - but when opportunities come our way I've learnt that it's best not to turn them down.  Anyway, long story short, I started as Project Coordinator on 1 May - so now I have that job (on a contractual basis as it's the only way I can 'fit it in', I just have to get my head around being 'self employed'!), a twelve month locum contract at a small birthing unit over an hour 'up the coast', a casual pool contract as a midwife in the unit, my TENS unit hire business, occasional cover for local self employed midwives and continue with my 'Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching' with LCA Auckland.  It is certainly testing my ability to maintain a work/life balance!

I spent the last two weeks of April at Ngati Porou Hauora - Te Puia Springs Hospital, giving the midwife who usually works up there a break.  Although it's not busy, there needs to be a midwife available 24/7 for births and providing antenatal and postnatal care to women.  It's a very sparsely populated area so  it can take over an hour just to drive to see a woman - but it's the most incredible place to live, with lovely people and truly magical without all the pressures of 'normal' life, where you really do have time to smell the roses and 'stand and stare'.  I took the time to chill walking along the beach at Tokomaru Bay and enjoy the occasional coffee ...

... and driving was never a hardship - it's not like the stress of driving somewhere busy, at every turn there is a scene to take your breath away, and Mount Hikurangi was definitely one of the highlights - the first land to see the sun shine each day ...

"Hikurangi is the sacred mountain of Ngāti Porou, and was said to be the first piece of land to emerge when Māui fished up the North Island. According to tradition, Māui’s canoe, Nukutaimemeha, remains stranded on the mountain peak."  

(The encyclopaedia of New Zealand)

Returning to Gisborne on 30 April, I had to 'hit the ground running' in my new role for the past three weeks, and I'm very aware that it's going to be a challenge to get everything sorted with the house to get it ready to sell in just four months time - we're half way through upgrading the bathroom, but with Barry only having one day off a week it's taking a lot longer than we anticipated!  And of course he needs to start applying for his visa in the near future - it's going to be an interesting few months, but we have a dream and we WILL be returning to UK to live it ...

There and back in a flash - now the countdown really begins!

Twenty days in England spending precious time with my family just weren't enough, but we certainly made the most of every moment and Barry even managed to fit in a couple more river and canal fixes in our last week there ...

Barry photographing the cathedral on a much brighter day in Worcester than our trip along here aboard Northern Pride in 2009

Barry captures Maunsel Lock on The Bridgewater and Taunton Canal

Our last weekend in the country was spent with 33 members of the extended Walsh family at Northmoor House near Dulverton in Devon, and on the way we spotted a sign for a canal centre - actually I suspect Barry had already been aware it was around and had just been waiting to find directions!  It was such an idyllic spot; Maunsel Lock is on the 14.5 mile long Bridgewater and Taunton canal, completed in 1827 to link the River Tone at Taunton to the River Parrett south of Bridgewater.

After a wonderful weekend with hot and sunny weather (the great grandchildren were even in a paddling pool!), we arrived back in Gisborne last Friday after a long flight and then a drive from Auckland over a couple of days as the Waioeka Gorge had opened on the Thursday, but only during daytime hours.  Since returning to 'sunny' Gisborne, it hasn't stopped raining!  And to think that there's a drought in England, there's definitely something not right about this ...

So now the countdown to our return to the waterways is really on, so much to do to get the house ready to sell and de-clutter our possessions, as well as the application process for Barry's residency visa - exciting times!!

Unsurprisingly, Barry took many photos while we were away, but I'm not sure when he'll find the time to post any - watch this space, he may surprise me!

Barry's canal fixes

After a great night out on Friday at The George Hotel in Lichfield, Barry managed to achieve his canal fix over the weekend, though it was touch and go for a while!  We were meeting up with Andy, aka Captain Ahab, who'd informed us he was somewhere between Tipton and Oldbury.

Without either an A to Z or a GPS, just a road name and a large AA Road Map, it was rather challenging.  I was just about to give up, saying I'd had enough and we'd have to stop somewhere to buy an A to Z, when we spotted Andy at the side of the road - hurrah!  He'd said he was on Dudley Road West, but in fact it turned out to be Dudley Road East - we'd been travelling round and round in circles looking for the west of the east road (!) and been on the way to Sedgely, wherever that is, before turning round!

Barry fills up with a cooked breakfast before the canal clean-up

Hurrah!  Finally we found the Captain!

Barry was a bit late for the canal clean-up that was in full swing, but he did manage to pull out a few plastic bags and other random bits and pieces.  Following the work party, he and Captain Ahab and Jeff found their way back to Wand'ring Bark and took a short trip to the pub to celebrate St Patrick's Day, had an overnight stay and then a cruise back to the Marina - Barry would have been in his element.

Collecting him from Whitchurch Rail Station on a sunny Sunday evening, we stopped off at Grindley Brook for a bit of a waterway walkabout ...

Grindley Brook, a few minutes drive from where my daughter Lisa lives

Tomorrow Barry's catching a train back to Birmingham to meet up with some more friends, Fred and Sara from Sheffield, and Lisa and I will drive back to Ombersley with our adorable grandson.

Barry's hand and our grandson's hand etched to compare 56 years, versus 2 years of age!

Only eight days of our trip left, we knew it would fly by and it certainly is, but we're having a fabulous time and it's so uplifting to spend time with my family - and we know that when we return to New Zealand we'll be on the countdown to coming back to live in 12 months time when we won't have to rush around so much either on the canals, or with family and friends.

We made it back to the motherland for mother's day...

Well here we are once again in England - Barry made the flight to Auckland last Tuesday night, thank goodness.  

It’s been 16 months since we were here, so it’s fabulous to be seeing my family again.  So far we’ve stayed with my parents in Ombersley (no photos yet Dijon!), been to Brighton to stay with Kim and Joe, had a brief visit to my sister in Southampton and then back to Ombersley.  

A couple of hours in Kuala Lumpar airport - with a humid jungle walk in the background

Within a day or two of arriving, Barry had managed to visit the Droitwich Canal, where we had a walk around the basin – we’re looking forward to travelling on this newly opened (in 2011) waterway when we return in 2013 – Barry took a few photos on his camera, so we’ll upload those when we’re back in New Zealand as he doesn’t have his card reader or laptop here.

Barry caught up with a friend in Brighton for a few drinks on Saturday afternoon.  Well when I say a few I may be understating the facts!  He suggested they'd managed to drink about 8 pints of Guinness in the space of a few hours, he really is incorrigible …

Despite that over indulgence, he obediently found his way back to Kim's on time, in the early evening, and we went out with Kim and Joe and a friend of theirs, Joanne, to a night-club in Brighton called ‘Cassablanca’s’ – there was an excellent band on and the girls boogied to the beat while the boys talked boy things and drank beer (I'm so thankful I'm a girl, I think we have so much more fun!).

Joe and Barry, Sandra, Kim and Joanne off in a taxi for a big night out

On Wednesday we managed to squeeze in another canal fix for Barry, this time to Stourpourt as I craved some good old British fish 'n chips and curry sauce - yum!  We were just in time to assist a boat through the locks after lunch ...

Stourport locks heading onto the river Severn - and above the foot bridge where a boy fell off his bike and sadly died - now covered with ugly scaffolding

We’re now at Lisa’s and have met our grandson for the first time – hurrah!  At last!  He's the sweetest little boy you could ever wish to meet and adores his Grandad Kiwi - he's had many more cuddles than Grandma Kiwi who's maybe just so much more scary.  We're off again this evening to Lichfield for my sister Kath's partner's 55th birthday party and another live band to dance to, then tomorrow, I'm handing Barry over to Captain Ahab for a weekend of canal cleaning around Tipton and Oldbury, then a night on Wand'ring Bark - he will be in seventh heaven bless him.  

I'll be driving back to Malpas, in Cheshire, again to spend Mother's Day with Lisa - her first one ever so it'll be very special.

News from the edge of the world (or rather the beginning) ...

On Friday last week I had to travel to Auckland for my eighth 'Diploma in Holistic Life Coaching' weekend, usually about a seven hour drive, through beautiful scenery.  Gisborne is literally on the edge of the world, and is the first place to see the sun each day (well that is until they changed the date-line on 31 December 2011 and Samoa 'lost' a day).  There are only two roads north from Gisborne, one through a gorge which is the shortest route and the other around the East Cape, another three hours at least.  On Friday morning a friend of mine phoned to say that the gorge was closed for a few hours, due to a 'slip' of something onto the road, so I waited a while.  By 12 midday though it was announced on the radio that it would be closed until Sunday - so off I went the long way and arrived in Auckland around 2130hrs - a nine and a half hour drive of around 650kms.  In the early hours of Saturday morning, a massive landslide occurred in the Waioeka Gorge, which has now closed the road for 4 - 6 weeks!  So it's likely it won't even be open when we get back from England - incredible.  How fortunate that it didn't happen when someone was driving past.

It's now Tuesday afternoon and my bags are packed ready to head to Auckland airport this evening around 2200hrs.  Barry is still working in his shop, ezimade, and is scheduled to catch the last flight out of Gisborne at 1840hrs.  Let's hope nothing goes wrong with it as there's no way he'll be able to make it to Auckland by road if he doesn't!

Not many photos at the moment, but here's one from last night - Deb and I went to 'Euro', a restaurant owned by Simon Gault who is a famous NZ chef.  The food was delicious, but expensive, and actually not as amazing as I expected and nowhere near the quality of The Marina Restaurant in Gisborne that we went to recently with our English guests Jean and Jeremy.

Deb and I at 'Euro' on the waterfront in Auckland

We've more or less arranged now to catch up with Captain Ahab and Belle on the weekend of 17th March, so Barry should get his canal and narrowboat 'fix'!   It'll be lovely to see them both again.

We arrive at Heathrow around 1615hrs on Wednesday 7th March, where we'll collect a hire car for the 20 days of our brief visit, and initially drive to my parents in Ombersley.  I'm hoping that the traffic isn't too awful, it always takes a bit of getting used to after the delightful slowness of New Zealand.

We'll stay there for a few days before travelling to Kim's in Brighton on Saturday until the Monday, before heading back to Ombersley for a few more days, then up to Malpas to see Lisa and our gorgeous grandson for the first time in person - we think he may try and put us back into the computer as he's only ever seen us on Skype!

It's coming into autumn here and we'll be arriving in UK to the spring - I'm looking forward to seeing the daffodils and crocus's, as well as my family, and I suspect Barry is looking forward to drinking more English beer - that's if he gets to Auckland on time ...

I am flying, I am flying, home again, across the sky ...

Only seven sleeps to go before we board the Malaysian Airlines flight via Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow airport at 0135hrs on Wednesday 7 March, for our brief 20 day visit to England.  I'm trying to arrange a hook up with Captain Ahab and Belle, but it's looking unlikely at this point, due to our tight itinerary - but never say never.  Although the waterways of Britain are important to us, seeing my family is our number one priority.  


I finished my last shift at the maternity unit this morning, and am not working again until 31 March - hurrah!

Last weekend we spent in Napier with some friends and had the privilege of going to The Mission Estate Winery to see the 'forever young' Rod Stewart.  Prior to the concert, we went into Napier, where, in 1931, the town was almost obliterated by a massive earthquake and many lives were lost.  Following the calamity, the town was rebuilt Art Deco style, and each year they celebrate the uniqueness of their city by holding an Art Deco Weekend on the third weekend of February, where people come from all over the world and dress up in style - I went in 2006 and it was a fascinating experience.

Barry took the opportunity of visiting the local 'Home Brew' shop, imaging that he'd meet a kindred spirit - only it didn't quite work out like that ...

Jelly Bean (bizarre name to begin with!) in Napier

Barry walked into the shop and introduced himself, saying that he'd recently opened up a home brew shop in Gisborne, and from the time the owner of 'Jelly Bean' opened his mouth until Barry left the shop, nothing but negativity poured forth from his lips - it was astounding -  I only managed a couple of minutes before I had to leave the premises, I can't recall ever hearing such a sorry tale!  How on earth he keeps any customers is beyond me.  The first thing he said was how he'd known at least 6 home brew shops between Wairoa and Gisborne in the 21 years he'd been open and they'd all closed.  It just continued downhill from there ...

Rodney and Barry try to look enthralled by the Napier Home Brew shop - it just convinced us how good ezimade is! 

Anyway, enough of that, and no mention of how I was led astray by the array of shops in Napier, back to the reason for our visit ...

When my eldest daughter was young I apparently convinced her that Roderick Stewart was my boyfriend, and she proudly told her friends so - I'm not sure how she managed this when she'd never actually MET him, but it just shows how easily influenced children can be, lol!  I've seen him in concert a few times over the past 40 years, but this time I was so overcome with excitement I almost cried - he's truly a magnificent showman at 67 years young - even Barry was rocking and a-rolling.

Although the rain fell for a couple of hours earlier in the evening, once Rod appeared the clouds parted and the stars shone - of course!

Before we saw the rain - the 25,000 crowd hasn't quite all arrived yet ...

What an incredible venue




Not the clearest picture, but you get a sense of the electric atmosphere in an open air amphitheatre concert

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 ...

A surprise visit 'down under' from fellow narrowboaters ...

... coincidentally at exactly the same time as a visit from some friends from UK who had booked in with us over a year ago!

Barry was in the shop on Monday, while I was sleeping before my fourth night duty (we're rather short of midwives currently so I'm having to do some extras!), and a couple came in and asked him if he knew who they were.  Now we were expecting my friends, Jean and Jeremy, to arrive the following day as part of their whistle stop tour of New Zealand, so poor Barry was rather confused.  He finds it a challenge to remember the names of people he's known for years, never mind those he's only met a couple of times, so although he recognised their faces he couldn't place them.

But then the name of a canal - The Chesterfield canal to be precise - was mentioned and he immediately knew Ray and Pauline!  His memory for places and waterways in UK is incredible.  Ray and Pauline were moored with us in 2009, along with the lovely Pete who we also caught up with again in 2010.  We bumped into Ray and Pauline in 2010 at The Black Country Museum.  Ray says he initially saw a young couple and thought we'd sold the boat, but he'd spotted my Godson Mikey and his girlfriend Sophie.

So on Tuesday evening we had a dinner party for six, instead of four, and were even more flabbergasted to discover that Ray and Pauline live 20 minutes from where Jeremy used to live in Lowton.

Pauline, Ray and Barry enjoying the evening sunshine on the deck

Barry was in his element chatting about the waterways and reminiscing about our first meeting with Pete. It was so lovely to see you both, thank you for dropping by and we'll catch you again in 2013 I'm sure!

Jeremy, Sandra and Jean catch up

Jean is a midwifery colleague I worked with in England when I was a Project Lead for Midwifery Recruitment and Retention with the Department of Health, Jean was a Local Supervising Authority Officer and Jeremy is a retired judge.  They're now making the most of their spare time and every two years have a big trip - this year it was to the Southern Hemisphere and they added two days onto their packed itinerary to see us in Gisborne, and we had a fabulous day doing touristy things on Wednesday - in the afternoon we went sting ray feeding at Dive Tatapouri, a short drive up the coast, something I've wanted to experience for ages.  Jean was rather worried that she'd get stabbed, but they were the sweetest, gentlest sea creatures you could imagine.  Only Jeremy had a waterproof camera, so I haven't any photos to put on here yet, but I'm sure he'll email some in the future.

As Jean was leaving to return to their motel, she asked quite innocently "Is that a toy?"  I looked at where she was pointing and there, to my absolute horror, was a dead rat lying prostrate in the corner of the lounge (rather than the 'rat in the kitchen'!).  Barry assured me that he'd vacuumed the evening before and it wasn't there then, but it was extremely stiff - blooming cats aye, but better a dead rat than a live one I suppose!

OMG!  And he seriously had vacuumed the night before!

Six weeks and six days before we return to UK …

Sadly not to come back to the canals, but the next time it will be – that’ll be in just over 13 months time now.  So the countdown is on, and there’s a lot to do in the meantime.

We’re flying from Auckland in the early hours of Wednesday 7 March and will be there until Tuesday 27 March, so a whistle stop tour catching up with my family, which includes a weekend at Northmoor House in Devon for my mum’s 79th birthday.

We had a great time camping at Pouawa from 28 December to 10 January, despite some dodgy weather when everyone (or so it seemed!) except Barry and I returned to town because we had an approaching cyclone!  During the two weeks of living next to the sea Barry and I continued to work as normal, and early one morning as I drove to the maternity unit in town, along the road which hugs the coast-line, I was blessed with a spectacular sunrise …

Awesome, it made getting up at 0530hrs well worthwhile!

Not much else to report really, it’s just heads down, work our little socks off to earn as much money as possible, pay off debts, de-clutter our (far too many!) belongings, get the house ready to sell by September and save to buy a lovely narrowboat in the spring of 2013.  I’m worn out just thinking about it, but it’s also very exciting to think I’ll be coming back to England to spend time with my family again, I miss them heaps.