The Best Laid Schemes o' Mice an' Men

It's been awhile & I know some of you have been regularly checking in to see what we're up to, or not as the case maybe. As mentioned a couple of blogs ago after getting home from the Coromandel & tying up a few lose ends we were hoping to head up north for winter. But 'life' has a way of getting in the way & foiling the best laid plans.

A couple of things have happened that have changed our direction for a few months. Firstly, my Dad had quite an stay in hospital, in Hastings for three weeks & then in Wellington where he was flown to have a double by-pass heart operation. All in all 27 days in hospital while he waited for an infection to clear, then waiting for a place in theatre & on the plane to get him there. Much to the family's relief he has come through the whole ordeal with flying colours and is well on the way to being back to his normal self.



During this time I drove to Napier to support Mum & also to drive her down to Wellington so we could be there for Dad during and after the op. And while most of our time was spent at the hospital Mum & I managed to do a little "tiki-touring" of our own driving around the Wellington harbour. We had lunch at the very popular & quirky Chocolate Fish Café in Shelly Bay before we continued around to the harbour entrance and onto the south facing bays of Wellington.

Chocolate Fish Café

Evans Bay Boat Shed

Scorch-O-Rama Café Paua Wall, Scorching Bay

After just five days & very good care in Wellington, Dad discharged back to home in Napier. I stayed on for a couple of weeks to help out with the patient. Dad was a model patient although we had to lay down the law a couple of times! :)



Autumn in Maize Field- Wairarapa

In amongst travelling to Napier & then onto Wellington I did manage to take a good number of photos including many beautiful churches through Southern Hawkes Bay & the Wairarapa. Mum was quite happy for me to stop every few miles to shoot another church & in fact a journey that should have taken us about four hours in the end took seven! We were in no hurry as Dad was meant to be under the knife but when we finally got to the hospital we found him sitting up in bed wondering where we were. His operation had been delayed by 24hrs.

Hawkes Bay Churches

In the meantime I have also decided to have a foot operation I was putting off hoping it wouldn't get any worse. Without going into the gory details I need to have a foot/toe realignment due to hereditary arthritis in my right foot which makes it very painful to do any type of walking or exercise & wear any shoes with a heel. I had a cortisone injection to help out while we travelled the Coromandel & it worked wonders but as it started to wear off the pain slowly returned.

We plan on doing lots of tramping & bush walks once we are on the road full time & especially in the South Island and as there is only a three month window of opportunity before we leave for the South I decided to have it done now. The worst part is that its also three months recuperation with no weight bearing for six weeks & my lower leg in a plaster cast. I know how inconvenient that is as I broke my ankle six or so years ago & it had the same repair time.

So it's now or never & luckily I managed to get got one of the best surgeons in our area and with a little bit of arm twisting of his senior nurse she manage to allocate me a surgery time that suited and one of the last he had available until October!

And because we'll be waiting out this time here in Tauranga we've also finally come to the conclusion that we really need to sell this house (you will remember that this is the one that came as part trade when we sold our original home) rather than keep it as a base or rent it out while we're away. So it will go on the market two weeks after my operation & hopefully not sell too soon otherwise I'll be laid up in the fifth-wheeler over at the Mount beach again.........hmmm.......actually that doesn't sound too bad. David has promised he'll do all the house work before each Open Home, I like that! :)

So there you are, that is now the plan. Just a small hiccup or two in the scheme of things but we will be on the road soon enough. We're just going to miss out on seeing some of the North Island, that will have to wait until we return in a year or two from down South.

Maraekakaho Woolshed, SH50, Hastings, Hawkes Bay