Welcome Back To Down Wattle Lane V2!
Where do I start, on my farewell post there was a lot of uncertainty with what we were doing in life, where we were going... well boy have things changed in 12 months.
I'm glad to report that my Mum is doing great since she has moved in with my sister, partner and her kids in Christchurch. Mum's health has improved so much she is able to chase after the grand kids. They all get on extremely well, and it is truly wonderful seeing Mum and the grand kids interacting with each other. It's truly something special, and a big thank you to my sister in taking such excellent care of Mum.
For Gary & myself, it's been a challenging few months. I was recently diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. I had known something wasn't right over the last year, with issues from writing, problem solving, thinking, shaking down my right side, balance issues along with other symptoms. All of this on top of my high blood pressure, constant choking due to my eosinophilic oesophagitis issues, and the never forgetting cancer reminder from the past, the Parkinson's diagnoses was straw that broke the camel back. It was truly deflating. I do try to stay positive in life, but this time it's been a challenge.
Then covid happened, and I lost my job, which wasn't a bad thing as I was planning to resign once the house sold, so redundancy did give me some free time to prepare for the Christchurch move.
It took some time, but our Kaiwaka property finally sold, and settlement was on the 7th August. We had never wanted to sell our Kaiwaka property, we have created so many wonderful memories with our friends. However with all that was going on with family, my health, and then the change in the world due to covid, the urge to be near to family, the decision to move was the right one.
No matter how much you plan, moving is stressful. We took 2 trailer loads of rubbish to the dump, about 4 car boot loads of donate-able goods to the St John charity shop, we had a big garage sale, and then we had to downsize our flock from 60 sheep to 20, sell a car and trailer, then buy a bigger car and a bigger trailer... all within 3 weeks, all the while buying a new property in Canterbury.
As you can imagine, the stress levels were high, and my shakes were full on!
The night before the move, we started to pack the car, and at about 7pm I came to the realization that we still had too much stuff, it all wasn't going to fit, and that was when my brain, body and everything just gave up... I just couldn't do it anymore. Gary was the hero that night, we stored some gear at a neighbours, and then Gary started shoving, forcing stuff into every nook and cranny of that car. We went to bed about 10pm that night and we were waking the following morning at 5am. We had 20 sheep to load on the trailer, then above their cage, load more stuff. The car and trailer were both overloaded. There was about 15cm clearance from the ground and the bottom of the towbar. Come 9.30am we departed Kaiwaka, about an hour late, so from the start we were chasing the clock. We had to be in Wellington at 7.45pm to catch the ferry. Half way down the middle of the north island, the towbar had scrapped the road. We were losing air in both the rear tyres, so we stopped and tried to re-balance the load. A friendly farmer saw our predicament, and helped us. We gently drove to the next petrol station in Turangi to refuel and to pump up the tyres. It was at this point I noticed the trailer tyre rubbing up against the mud guard. I didn't mention anything to Gary as stress levels were already at breaking point. I thought if it turns to custard, we still have a spare tyre. But we had no time to spare, we had to race to make it to Wellington. By this time the GPS was telling us we would arrive at 8.10pm. So we had no room for anymore stops, we had to make it on the 1 tank of fuel, and no more dramas. At 7.45pm we where still 20 minutes away from the Bluebridge Ferry terminal, the fuel light was on, and I was doing 110km down the Wellington motorway. Gary called the ferry to say we are coming with sheep, and we will be there in 10 minutes. If we missed that ferry we would have to overnight in Wellington with 20 sheep and 1 cat... so we were not going to miss that ferry. At 8.10pm we were met by the very welcoming Bluebridge staff. We made it! After a dinner onboard we retired to our cabin for a short sleep before our midnight arrival into Picton. There was some concern as to whether the car would restart in Picton and be able to drive off the ferry due to no fuel. Our first stop was for petrol and more air in the tyres. By this time Gary noticed the trailer tyre. We retied some straps, checked the sheep and drove at a leisurely 80kms to 153 Loburn Terrace Road, arriving at about 5.30am Saturday morning. We unloaded the sheep, and then went to my sisters for a quick shower before we had to collect the caravan and tow to site. We spent the day unpacking the car into the caravan, and then we finally crashed and went to bed at 6pm Saturday night. We were both shattered!
This is now the start of Down Wattle Lane V2. The next post will detail our big plans.
BIG THANK YOU TO:
Simon & Howard for helping out at our Garage Sale.
Geoff for all the amazing help at Down Wattle Lane.
Kim for holding some of our stuff.
BIGGEST THANK YOU TO:
Gary for being there for 16+ years, and still being there for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment