My fans keep asking when I will next be putting up a blog. It has been niggling me in the background that I haven’t written anything in a very long time! So come along and see what we have been doing.

From Nans house we headed to Dad’s where we had an awesome time. Dad & Sue met us for lunch in Manurewa at the Hill House Cafe. Very French, very yummy! A lot of good art around and they have lessons here and all sorts. Another really cool council owned initiative. While there we happened to have a roof box for the car just around the corner. Then we headed to Beachlands. Dad invited us to stay the night, which we gratefully accepted. As you may have read we have a few things here at Dad’s house. We make sure we pick everything up and pack the car well. Sue does pizza for us for dinner. Dad stokes up the pizza oven and it is delicious. That night we have a totally of 4 fires lit, we burned off some rubbish, then the pizza oven, then the outside fire, finishing with the inside fire. Sue made us a lovely frittata for breakfast and we said our goodbyes.

We took the scenic route to Papamoa stopping many times along the way. A quick look at Hunua Falls, which I remember visiting as a girl on one of our surprise adventures with Nana & Grandpa in the camper. When we got down to Paeroa, we had a good stretch and checked out some of the antique shops. You then pass through the Karangahake Gorge, it looks like a beautiful cycle. We both say let’s ask if Mum wants to do it with us. Around Katikati I see a sign for a nudist campground, I wonder if this is the one I have seen up for sale on trade me. I tell Rowan to turn right so I can check it out. We have a chat to the manager and I end up emailing the agent for more information. It has a lovely location but you are just buying a lease for the business and the business has not been doing well for the past 5 or so years. We arrive in Papamoa planning to stay a few nights. It is good to see mum. We get a chance to get on our bikes and do the Karangahake Gorge, it is not as nice and blue as it was a few days ago. The rain has caused a stir. It is still a nice ride. At one point we nearly get frozen wet to our bikes. It ends up only being 7km, not much of a slog. We wanted to take the train up further then ride down. The train doesn’t run on a Wednesday. A must have coffee at the train station when we get back.

Mum’s friend Bernie who I have known all my life had a clear out of clothes that she didn’t fit. I now have a lot of new to me clothes that are really nice quality. Thanks Bernie!

I really am drawing a blank on how long and what exactly we did for the rest of our stay. We did get some op shopping in. Oh I remember we got another big purchase. A camper van! Another unseen purchase this one a fair more expensive. Let’s hope we haven’t made a huge mistake! I try to organise the mechanics to start work thinking we are heading to Australia soon. It has been a year since Peter & Graham passed away. We really want to make it but the logistics are getting harder and harder. With the Alps to Ocean Cycle booked in, it is a more hectic schedule than we are used to. My theory with this camper is it has failed its warrant for rust issues and a few other consumable things. But it has had a WOF (warrant of fitness) a year ago. So surely the rust can’t be that bad… Famous last words…

From Papamoa we head to Cambridge to see Nellie and the boys. A detour to Reporoa to see my sister Sarah for lunch. It was nice to see her and the very cheeky Blaise. A good catch up and we got to see her and Mum’s project of a horse float being done up. You can follow her progress on instagram loosescrewtrailercrew. Blaise is naughty as ever and gets herself into mischief. They have a new family member Marshmallow, a wee lamb that was rejected by its mum. They are looking after it and training it up for pet day for Lucian.

Almost a week at Nellies house, we did get to go to our favourite shop twice! Honestly if you are passing through Cambridge on a Thursday or Saturday you must go to the Lions Club. They have amazing stuff for super cheap prices.

We got some organising done at Nellie’s she has all this space now. We moved the beds and set up the boys room. The garage still has stuff that needed to go. Like two old washing machines, which we found a whiteware guy to pick up. One of the boys pull a sicky and it is a day where we have a lot of balls to start rolling. We bore him out of his brains by not letting him use any screens and just talk about property all day. Rowan and I got to catch up with Aunty Deb when we had dinner at her new place in Te Awamutu. The place is fantastic for them.

Going South, we get down to Wellington today. On the way we pick up our new home in Waikanae. Now nothing has happened to it, so we are driving it carefully to the ferry terminal then hoping on a early morning ferry to Picton. The lady shows us about and and it is even cooler than in the photos. Rowan is going to drive it and I will follow in the Toyota.

Rowan gets it down to Blue Bridge terminal without a hitch. We book our ferry then and there. We didn’t want to do it earlier just in case we had trouble getting it there. We park it up and leave it. We head to Michaela & Gareth’s place for a late dinner. We don’t stay long but enjoy a quick catch up. Michaela kicks us out and heads for bed. We get down to the terminal to check in. We get parked up and I jump in with Rowan to catch a few hours of sleep before they load us on. We spent the extra $40 to have a cabin. It is worth it to have a good nap and a shower. It was really windy in Wellington and I thought it would be rough but the straight is flat as a pancake.

Wake up call from the staff and all I want to do is sleep. The sun is coming up soon. We head into the outskirts of Blenheim to get to Nelson. The drive goes relatively quick. We pick up a much needed coffee before Havelock. We arrive at Kelvin & Paula’s around 10am. Kelvin is out, so we head to the op shops to waste some time. I already have a million ideas on what I want to change in the camper. The next few days go by fast, we stay in our camper but use their bathroom. When we headed out to Motueka, we ran over a oven grill at the dump and put 4 good punctures in the tyre. Rowan finds a trailer we may use as a trailer or just on sell as it is set up with a canvas top which works as a camper. We made the decision not to go to Australia, we just have too much to do and it is near impossible.

When getting the trailer a warrant we eat an amazing croque monsieur. We say our goodbyes and head to our friends Liz & Rick in Christchurch. We arrive in the afternoon.

We end up being there for a week, there is a lot to do. Our silver cars battery is stuffed so we replace that. The AA guy gets our old hilux going. We drive it straight to the mechanic to start the WOF process. It fails on the speedo being out and some small rust bits they want us to fix. It takes till Thursday to sort the whole thing out but once done it is back to being our most reliable vehicle. on Friday we race down to Oamaru to chat to the council about consents and what the planning team allows. We also see a few block of land while we are there. That takes all day and we end up at Formosa in Ashburton for dinner

Our camper needs more rust repair then we thought. Turns out someone dodgy must have given it a wof last time. As the rust man points out there is no way it gets like that in a year. So we book that in for while we are away on our cycle. We try to sell the Toyota before we leave but it doesn’t quite work out like that. We have a good sort of what to bring and what to leave behind. It takes us a while to sort it all out. I give the hilux a clean as it is pretty dirty now. All this organising and running around leads us up to doing the Alps to Ocean.