How it all began...

In April 2011 we (that is my husband David & I) made the life changing decision to sell our dream home overlooking the beautiful Tauranga harbour and "hit the road", so to speak. Buy a mobile home and travel the country, be free and easy with no itinerary in mind, make the journey the adventure not the destination, relax & enjoy life, all those cliches we hear from time to time. This was a momentous decision and it didn't come easy or quickly, we had many sleepless nights; "do we, don't we?" We felt we couldn't do the change of lifestyle justice if we didn't sell the house, we'd always have a "bolthole" to run back to and besides that, our home was quite large and required a lot of ongoing maintenance which would mean we'd have to return to it regularly to catch up on chores. We also knew we didn't want to rent it out.

Tauranga Harbour

This would be a total change of lifestyle, we love the "great outdoors" and have travelled extensively overseas but other than a few brief holidays at various New Zealand locations over the years we had not taken the time to explore out own piece of paradise. The NZ tourism ad "Don't leave home until you've seen the country" springs to mind. We are not entirely new to having a small movable home; we've spent many happy days & weeks boating around the coast of northern New Zealand in our 11 metre power cat (catamaran) and having worked & lived together 24/7 for over 25 years, living in a confined space with your better half was not going to be a problem either. Yet! ;)

The house went on the market in May 2011 and while we knew it wouldn't sell overnight we were getting a little frustrated by the time we signed on the dotted line in July 2012. In the end the 3 month wait for settlement date in late September was a blessing as it gave us time to get used to the idea that we'd be moving on and also gave me time to sort, sell, dispose of &/or pack the huge amount of gear we'd collected over the years including records from our previous 3 businesses. Everything that we wanted to keep was boxed and colour coded for each room or area & either for long-term storage or current use. As it turned out we've ended up with another delightful home which became part of the trade and which we will be living in until our fifth-wheeler & ute arrives. We are not sure yet whether we'll sell this or keep it short-term, those decisions will be made next year. Other than a few "shake-down" trips we aren't intending to hit the road full time until at least March 2013. We have a VIB due in February. VIB? Very important baby; grandchild #4.

Bittersweet