The Karikari Peninsula

Choose a bay depending on the wind. Either side has beautiful sand and water.


Lush vegetation meets sandy beaches.


Not a bad place to watch the sun go down.


But now it's time to leave the east coast to see what the west coast has to offer.

Middle Class Auckland Suburbia Temporarily Relocates to Paradise

Yesterday we plunged headfirst into the Auckland tradition of holiday camping, and it most probably won’t be our last opportunity. We spent most of the morning on the 27th packing up and saying good-bye to the folks at Manoah, our organic farm orchard dwelling. We don’t seem to be able to get an early start these days. When we finally hit the road all rigged up, we drove north up highway 10 on the east coast of the north island toward the Karikari peninsula. We had planned to drive all the way to the end of the peninsula to see if we could find a spot at the Department of Conservation camping area. The campsites there are on a first-come basis. Since we got such a late start, and we wanted to see Matauri Bay, we decided to try our luck at the Matauri Bay Holiday Park for a night in case we went all the way to the end of the peninsula only to find there were no sites available.

Driving into Matauri Bay is spectacular. The top of the road overlooks the magnificent bay lined with perfect beaches. The steep road winds down into the bay past a few beaches to the Matauri Bay Holiday Camp. Driving into the Holiday Park was like dropping from the clear blue sky into a rowdy fraternity party. The place was swarming with Auckland holidaymakers out to have a good time. They had brought everything with them. Each individual site was used to capacity. Full size fridges packed with beer next to hi-fi systems competing for attention next to microwaves churning out their suppers next to tv’s. Huge tents were butted right up to each other. There was no room whatsoever to squeeze us in. We were rather relieved. Matauri Bay will have to wait until the crowds have gone before we explore there again.

We drove north another half an hour to the next holiday park called Tauranga Bay Holiday Park where they had some sites available. Perhaps because they’re more expensive with a slightly less flashy bay, the campground seemed much more civilized. It was quite the scene none the less.

Here’s a typical tent with full size fridge, freezer, microwave, music, tables, etc.


People were crammed in here also with all their stuff squeezed into their designated border.


If you could get up here a littler earlier than the others, you could snag a beach front spot.


And the beach really is beautiful. The amazing thing is that this place is very quiet during the off-season. A few weeks earlier, there would only be a handful of people here, and the beaches are quite something.


Quinne just loves the beach.


So does Beck. The soft sand is a great place to practice walking.


or running

Midsummer

Since we didn't have internet access on the farm, we'll try to catch up a little.

With bonfire, dancing, songs, and poems, we celebrated the midsummer. A medieval spirit was reinvigorated.


The moon watched over us with interest.


We danced holding hands.


Deep into the night.

Many Hands in a Common Direction

This community is a culmination of many hands working with the same philosophy to produce a beautiful way of life. Much of the work was done by ‘wwoof’ers (willing workers on organic farms) who have long since departed, but their mark remains. Those who are still here carry on the traditions and ideas. After a week on the farm, I can attest to their success. The lifestyle is as interesting as the biodynamic farming. Most of the food that is eaten is grown on the farm.
We seem to be bumping into foreigners during our travels more than locals. The majority of people who come through this farm are foreign. There are many Germans here, probably because Tony is German.
Some of the buildings are constructed using these bricks made from clay, straw, and sand. They’re not load bearing, but are great insulation. All these materials are available here on the farm, and they’re not that hard to make. They’ve been having some trouble with the auger they’ve been using to mix the materials. Perhaps if I pass through here again, I can lend some engineering help to build a better auger specifically for these bricks.



It seems to be a challenge drying the bricks since it rains quite often here. Although we’ve seen a fair share of rain, we’ve also enjoyed beautiful sunshine. With the weather the soil here, it’s not difficult to grow plants.
Uli is using straw and mud to fill in his walls. Now he’s waiting for the mix to dry so that he can plaster over it. He may be waiting a while given the amount of rain they get here. Here’s a picture of Uli. As you can probably guess, he is quite a character.



Uli is originally from Germany, as is Heidrun who was visiting for a few days. She was on her way back to Auckland on Christmas day when I took this picture.



Becky, Marty’s wife is originally from Ireland and met Marty when wwoofing here about seven years ago. Here she’s colorfully dressed for the Midsummer festival.



Becky is holding Amber their other daughter, Rosie is checking the possum trap with Quinne.



The possums are not from New Zealand, and are killing off all the Kiwi birds.
There’s no question where Rosie is from. Her New Zealand accent is strong, and she’s not afraid to use it.



Rosie and Quinne have been tearing it up.



They’ve even been lending a hand on the farm.



Salvatore also lives on the property and is originally from the US.

Orchard Dwelling

We’ve stayed on this farm for six days now. Our caravan is parked among the orchards close to the main house. We've had a great time getting to know the community here and will post more about the characters we've run into soon.

Kerikeri Organics

We didn’t spend as much time in Russell as anticipated, mainly because we wanted to escape the holiday parks. We thought we might find a beach or secluded spot to spend a few days. We took the ferry from Russell across the bay to Paihia to explore the area. Someone in Kawakawa said we could camp at the bowling club for a minimal fee if anything. We didn’t see anyone at the bowling club, so we continued on our way.

We had booked to stay at the Top 10 Holiday Park in Kerikeri over Christmas from the 23rd to the 27th, but the Bay of Islands isn’t that big, and we found ourselves not far from Keri Keri. We considered driving up north and returning for Christmas, but we didn’t want to rush to be somewhere, and we would need more time to look around the 90-mile beach area and be back to Kerikeri by Christmas. Since we weren’t far from Kerikeri, we decided to see what was there. On the way, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand to buy some sweet corn. The bloke at the stand suggested we checkout Pagoda Lodge in Kerikeri. He thought it was much better than the Top 10. We decided to check it out.

An English couple runs Pagoda Lodge. Being Buddhist, they designed the magnificent grounds to be peaceful and tranquil with ponds surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. There were several enormous trees that provided ample shade. Amy thought it should be a Buddhist retreat rather than a lodge and campsite. There were several buildings that were used as cottages or rooms to rent. A large communal deck overlooked a river with thick native bush on both banks. It was a magnificent place to stay.

During our second day in Keri Keri, Amy met someone at the library who was also involved in Steiner education. After talking to her for a while and explaining what we were doing, she suggested that we introduce ourselves to Marty at Kerikeri Organics on the outskirts of town. Amy had seen the sign on the way into town, and wanted to check it out anyway. We followed the sign 750 meters up a farm driveway.
This is looking back down the driveway.



As promised, after 750 meters, the driveway opened up and there was the store. The store was more like a stall than a store. Here’s Amy, Quinne, and Beck standing in front of the store.



We met Marty, who was working on a drive shaft in front of the store. Mary was happy to show us how the store works. It’s completely self-serve. You choose what you want, weigh it to figure out the price, and write it down on a piece of paper. When you have everything you want, you put your money in the till, and off you go. After buying a few things, we started chatting to Marty about what we were doing. We told him that we were interested in joining the gathering they were planning for this Saturday on the solstice. He told us we were welcome and to bring some fruit dish and a poem or song. We asked him if he had any suggestions about camping. He said, “yes, sure – no problem, just find a place that’s level. If you need the tractor to get in, that’s fine.”

Just then a German guy named Peter drove up and almost ran over Quinne. After a short discussion with Marty, Peter told us to visit him up the road to meet Beth. Peter looks after a portion of the land next to Marty. We walked up the road to meet Beth, but went too far and walked into the wrong house. The household we intruded on belonged to Tony and his wife Theo. Theo didn’t seem to mind us barging in and explained that Peter lived farther down the road. Tony and Theo’s house and property is perched near the top of the hill on a tranquil piece of land. Their beautiful house fitted the majestic landscape well.

On our way back down to Peter’s, we ran into Tony walking through one of his fields. Tony looks like he lives the most healthy and perfect life. His long, wavy hair frames a tanned face with dark kind eyes. Here’s a picture of Tony. Like many people in this community, Tony is from Germany. Although he didn’t let on, he owns the land Peter lives on, and the land that we’re on.



Tony seems to be behind much of this peaceful community.

Russell, New Zealand

Beck just loves his public baths.

We’ve spent two nights in Russell now. As we drove into town we knew this place was special. We drove down the steep hill into the beautiful Bay of Islands and rounded the corner that led down the main street of Russell. Suddenly the pace slowed down, and there was no hurry to drive through the small downtown. You can’t be in Russell without feeling like you’re on vacation. The people in the 4-square grocery store at the pier had plenty of time to chat. That’s something great about the New Zealanders; they always have time to chat. It really hit me in Auckland when we were shopping for cars, how everyone had time to chat about where we were from and what we were up to. I stopped by one dealer who didn’t think that he had anything appropriate for me to look at, but carried on for about half an hour talking about what we should consider for towing our van and what he just purchased and how happy he was with it.

Back in Russell, we stayed at the large, tidy, and well-situated Top 10 Holiday Park, which is a 10-minute walk from downtown or the beach. It was fun seeing Quinne play with the other children from all over the world at the playground of the holiday park. One of her favorites was Toni Mae from Scotland. She got her first love letter from a seven year old who sounded like he was from Australia. The love letter had a few pictures on it and said “I love Kwin”. We still don’t know his name though. I suspect he will be the first of many.

New Zealand High Rise

New Zealand Wireless

Hunderwasser

Amy took us on a detour to visit the public toilets at Kawa Kawa. I was skeptical also, but it was well worth the trip. These toilets were designed by the famous Austrian architect, Hunderwasser, who lived here toward the end of his life. His architecture incorporates art and nature amazingly well. The colors, shapes, materials, and incorporated artwork make the building worth checking out.



We park our caravan in the public parking behind the toilets, which are on the main drag going through the small town of Kawa Kawa. After looking around, we went back to the caravan for lunch. It was really nice to be able to make a sandwich and cup of tea without going to a restaurant. After lunch we took the train through the town. Quinne timidly joined in singing Christmas carols with the other pre-school class that were on-board. They were really cute Maori kids. The little girl sitting next to us had the words a little wrong, and was singing; “We wish we was a merry Christmas…”

Tonight we’re in a wonderful place in Keri Keri called “The Pagoda Lodge”. We were told to go here by a farmer selling fruit on the side of the road. He was right, this place is magnificent. It’s on the river just outside Keri Keri. There are a few little cottages and campsites on a large pieced of tranquil land with well manicured gardens and ponds. Amy thinks it would do well as a Buddhist retreat.

Whangarei

I'm sitting here outside a McDonalds using their wireless internet. It's not free mind you. There aren't free wireless sites like in the US. I'm trying to download the blogs we've written while on the road.

Since we’re still getting organized, we decided to spend the first two nights in a Top 10 Holiday Park. The Top Ten Holiday Parks are the nicest, and the most expensive holiday parks in New Zealand. It was $78 for two nights! We went shopping for pots and pans and silverware and towels, only to return most of it because we realized we don’t have room for things like kettles when you can use a pot instead. When we tried to find a place for everything in the small caravan, we realized we needed to take a more minimalist approach. Getting things organized and setup takes a while, especially with children, but is an important step to keeping sane. We’re still working on it.

Quinne enjoyed playing with the other kids on the trampoline. The park borders a reserve with walks through magnificent Kauri groves. Other than the beautiful walks on the outskirts, Whangarei isn’t the most beautiful town to hang out in, but it doesn’t take long to get outside Whangarei and enter a completely different world. Whangarei is the last chance to stock up on supplies and conveniences before heading north. The stress of stocking up and getting things we needed before the weekend was getting to us. We couldn’t wait to be on our way again.

It didn’t take long before the road narrowed and we were forced to slow down, relax, and take in the peaceful green fields bordering thick forests. We stopped at an art gallery and café to take a break. We chatted with a German guy who worked for Siemens in Munich before being laid off four years ago. He and his wife toured around the world and settled here to open the café next to the art gallery. It suited the gallery owner who wanted the traffic. This is their third year, and now they have an 18-month-old kiwi boy of their own.

20 minutes further down the road, we stopped for supplies for dinner. There wasn’t much in the way of greens at the local store. We should’ve stopped at the farm stands just outside Whangarei. The local beach looked inviting, but we needed to find somewhere to stay before we could relax too much. After another 20 minutes, we saw a sign for Karibu Creek Camping. This is where we stayed last night. Maxine, who is originally from Zimbabwe, owns this piece of land about 45 minutes north of Whangarei. We knew she was from southern Africa when we had to avoid guinea fowl on her driveway. Maxine has a chicken coop with all sorts of hens and roosters. She rents out two cottages and is getting ready to open an arts and crafts shop.

Here's a picture of Quinne and Maxine feeding the chickens.



It was great to be able to pick fresh herbs, lettuce, spinach, potatoes and snap peas from her garden. We're starting to get in a grove with the caravan. Amy made a wonderful loaf of bread this morning.



Here's Amy sticking her head out of our van at Karibu Creek

Buying a Caravan

We learned a fair bit when shopping for caravans that you might find interesting if you ever want to buy or rent one. Maybe this is useful information if you vacation in New Zealand and choose to explore the country bringing your accomodations with you. It's a really popular way to travel around New Zealand, and the country is well suited for it.

The first question is whether to get a camper van or caravan. A caravan is pulled behind a car, and a camper van is all integrated.

We rented a camper van when we toured around the south island a few years ago.
The advantages of a camper van are:
-Easier towing, especially around towns
-Easier to rent because you don't need a car
-All wiring is already setup, so you don't have to wire the car to power the caravan.
-Easier setup
-Easier to stop and park along the way

The disadvantages of a camper van are:
-You have to pack everything up if you want to drive around town. This is a big deal, especially if you plan to stay in one place and enjoy it a while.

The other option is a 3rd wheel, which connects to the flatbed of a truck making it a little easier to tow. We looked into one of these. They seem to be more expensive and would be more difficult to re-sell because you need a ute (or pickup truck) to tow it. There seem to be fewer of these in New Zealand. The ones that we saw were really nice.

For our needs, a caravan suits us best mainly because we can leave the caravan parked and explore the area. After touring around for a while in the caravan, we're getting adjusted pretty well. The main trade-off is parking the caravan when we're en-route. If we drive through a town that looks nice, it's not easy to just stop and check it out. Finding a parking spot can be quite an issue. It's also more difficult to stop and take pictures along the way. From that aspect, a camper van would be easier.

We've already ripped the carpet up and can't wait to find some linoleum to put down instead. Carpet makes no sense for a caravan or camper-van - especially when you have children.

I'll take a picture of the inside and post it soon.

The Book

While I’m traveling, I plan to gather content for a book. This would mainly be a picture book with portraits of New Zealanders enjoying rural life on the island. This will be a fun way to look into the lives of ordinary people enjoying their lives. Life in New Zealand is different, and I want to capture what makes New Zealand special. This will be a coffee table book. I need to specify the scope of the book, and I need your help. Please help me come up with some ideas for a title and scope. What would you be interested in? Thanks for any ideas or thoughts, O

Ready to Roll

Tomorrow we will have been in New Zealand a week. It’s been a busy week. Shopping for a car and caravan has been time consuming. It takes a while to learn what is a reasonable price and what to look for.

Today we finally bought a car. We needed something to pull our caravan, so we couldn’t get anything too small. We wanted a diesel, but diesels cars are new to New Zealand, and older models are not available. We considered a double cab ‘ute’ as they’re called here. A ute is a pickup truck (or bakkie in South African), but they’re in demand here and quite expensive. We ended up with a Land Rover Freelander. It surprised both of us to drive away in a Land Rover. Now we’re ready to hit the road.


We’ll pickup our caravan tomorrow and drive to Whangarei where we’ll spend two nights. The plan is to spend Christmas in The Bay of Islands.

We're excited to leave Auckland and experience a Zew Zealand that is different to your generic western city.

Waiheke Weekend

We decided on Sunday to give the Ziervogels a break and take the ferry to Waiheke Island. Quinne was very excited to hear that we were going to take a fairy. We told her we were going to the beach to alleviate her disappointment about the fairy actually being a ferry.

It took us 30 minutes to drive to the ferry terminal from North Shore. We pulled onto the ferry as it was pulling away without enough time to even buy tickets. It took about 1 1/2 hours and cost $140 return.

It rained all day on Sunday. We drove around in the rain looking for somewhere to stay and looking around the island for about an hour. We finally saw a B&B sign and checked it out, but no one was home. A little further up the road we saw a sign saying “Eco Lodge”. The fauna on the steep path down to the house was incredible. Sue, the owner showed me around and told me it would cost $140 dollars for the night. That included breakfast. We had a room upstairs with a shared kitchen downstairs, and bathrooms around the corner. There was only one other guest; a girl visiting from Germany.

Sue, her husband, and two boys aged 3 and 6, purchased the place in February. They really enjoy living on the island, and we could see why. It’s 35 minutes from Auckland, but feels like another world.

Before we checked in, we drove down to Woolworth’s to pickup some dinner supplies. The rain let up after dinner, so we drove down to the closest beach to go for a walk. The beach was full of shells. It was only during our walk along the beach that we realized what a magical place this was. There was no one else around, and we had the beach all to ourselves to explore. The beach was on the edge of a dotterel preserve, and we ran into a few busily readying themselves for the night. One was taking a bath in the shallow water. This beach had more shells than we’ve ever seen in one place before. Needless to say, Quinne was in shell collecting heaven. By the end of our walk both of her raincoat pockets were full of shells.

Amy got her first taste of driving on the left hand side of the road. After that first taste, she decided to spit it out. It made her a bit nervous, to say the least. Worst of all is the rule in New Zealand that if you’re making a left hand turn, you must give way to someone coming from the other direction who is turning right. This was especially bad for Amy, because she kept exiting on the next road to the left whenever she saw another car in sight. Quinne, wanting to soothe her mommy, said, “just do the best you can Mommy, I think you’re doing a good job.”

The ferry is pulling into the bay, so we’ll shut down and post this later.

A Dodgy Deal

After only four days in New Zealand, we have a house.

After picking out a caravan that would suit us best at Wood’s Caravans, we decided to checkout another “van” as caravans are called here, to make sure we were getting a decent deal. I found one on trademe.co.nz. That’s the New Zealand craigslist.org. A guy named ‘Dodgy’ Rodger was selling English caravans like the one’s at Wood’s, but from his house just outside Auckland. Amy’s was concerned that he was likely to live up to his name, but after looking around his vans, we made him an offer. He came down $1 000 off the list price, so we gave him $800 deposit and told him we would phone him when we were ready to pick it up. It’s a 4-berth camper with shower, toilet, small fridge, oven and stove. We liked the layout because the kids have bunks on the opposite end to where our bed is. We can pull their curtain after they’re asleep and have some time alone.

Now we have to buy a car. We’re renting one from a bloke who has a mechanic shop and also rents cars. There aren’t many diesel sedans in New Zealand, and we don’t want a huge car. We will need something that can pull a light caravan though. I test-drove a Land Rover, but it was too nice for what we need a car for.

Back to trademe.co.nz to look some more.

Flying into the future

I don't know what happened to December 5th. We seemed to have given it a skip. We hopped on a plane on Tuesday and flew for 12 hours before landing in Auckland on Thursday!

So, if you can't find a good reason to visit us, think about this. It's Tuesday, and the week is really dragging. Four more long days before the weekend. How are you going to make it through another long work week? No problem! Simply hop on a jet to New Zealand, and you'll be there just in time for the weekend. Now you have another good reason to visit.

The flight was not half as bad as we expected. Both kids did really well. They gave us the bulk-head seats with a basinette for Beck. They wouldn't do that for us on our last flight from Europe because Beck was old enough to sit and they were worried that he would fall out of the basinette. Air New Zealand is much more reasonable. If you don't think your baby is in danger - it's up to you. Maybe they would've supplied a bungee to tie to his legs if we had asked. It turns out he didn't stay in the basinette for all that long. They wouldn't let Quinne sleep on the floor though. In comparison, Air France moved Beck from the Basinette to the floor. Strange.

No hitches going through customs, we arrived about 20 minutes early at about 4:45 in the morning. We had reserved the Airport Shuttle online while in San Francisco. We decided that it would be too much to get a rental car and try to find our way around after the long flight. With all the rain, it turned out to be a good decision. Our Russian driver (Pikof van Dropoff (the same Russian Chauffeur from the Car Guys )) safely delivered us to the North Shore where CF and Adrianna Ziervogel live.

By the time we arrived at their house, the drizzle had turned into a torrential downpour. We hauled our luggage into the garage and came inside. Apparently I didn't catch onto this 'day-skip scheme' and told CF that we would arrive on the 5th instead of the 6th. They had been worrying about us the day before, getting up in the middle of the night whenever they heard a noise to see if it was us. Fortuntely we caught them before they went to work. I thought they lived in house number 3, but they actually lived in number 2. It didn't matter because the houses weren't marked anyway. I saw a light on in the middle house and knocked on the door. CF answered and I asked if this was number 3. He said no, and pointed to the next house. As I was walking away, he said "who are you looking for?". I'm so glad he did, otherwise we would've stood in the rain trying to find the wrong house while water permeated through my protective layer of clothing soaking my expensive camera and computer gear.

I drove to the bus stop with Adriana so that we could use their car while she was at work. To stop the kids from destroying their house, and to get our feet under us, we took the car and explored the surrounding neighbourhood. We eventually found a caravan lot and explored all the options of caravans. Richard, the owner took us to a car dealer who showed us some options of vehicles that could tow a caravan. This consumed the majority of the day. On the way back, we stopped at the local beach where Quinne delighted in finding real sea shells right there on the ground. Amy and Beck took a short nap in the car.

Although CF and Adrianna are family, we had never met them before. Even so, they didn't hesitate to open their house up to us. Adriana came home from work with toys for the kids, and cooked a wonderful meal for us. At the end of the day, it was nice to be in a home instead of a hotel.

Leaving winter behind

This is a picture of Quinne and her snowman. No, it’s not snowing in San Francisco. I didn’t get a chance to post this before we left Denver. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the heart she added. She put an apple on a chopstic and stuck the chopstic into where Frosty’s heart should be. The sun came out and melted Frosty a little. It made the apple fall, and someone must have picked it up. When Quinne saw that it was missing, she thought that it had melted into his chest and that he would have a good chance of becoming real now. She was very excited for him.

Westward

We left Colorado today. We’re in San Francisco until Tuesday the 4th staying at Andrea’s place. Andrea is Amy’s best friend. She lives in a very nice single bedroom apartment on the third floor of an old building in the Marina district. Did we mention that it’s a very nice apartment with lots of beautiful breakable things? Beck’s helping us spot all of them. He’s good that way.

It was a little crazy leaving Denver. We had stuff from the house that we hadn’t figured out what to do with. We were up late organizing stuff, and the kids were up early the next day organizing us.

Here’s all of our luggage excluding the two car seats.

Homeless

Well, we closed on our house today, so now we're officially homeless. Everything went fine. We rushed to the bank to deposit the closing check before enjoying our last lunch in Boulder at Sherpa's Restaurant. We'll miss their great tasting chai and naan.

We left Boulder for the last time, since we're staying with Amy's parents in Lakewood. The emotions of leaving friends, family, and a place that we enjoyed living, hit Amy hard yesterday. She's been feeling the heartache quite intensely. Although she also feels the excitement.

We're very busy getting the last few things sorted and trying to see friends before we leave. Amy met Jen, her childhood friend since age 5, to take pictures at the photo booth at Southwest Plaza. It's been a tradition of their's since they were about 9 years old.

The kids are handling the move much better than we expected. I was very hesitant to show our 4 year old daughter, Quinne, our empty house. I thought it would be traumatic to see our home with nothing in it. I expected her to cry over her missing toys and bed and everything familiar. I'm pleased to say that I was completely wrong. She walked in and loved the open space to run and dance in. She kept saying "where's our house". I explained that this is our house and our stuff is packed up, but she kept asking where our house was. I knew that she was wondering where our home was, but she didn't ponder it for too long.

We took Quinne to say goodbye to the family who bought our house. They lived down the street (until yesterday) and Quinne loved to play with Leigha and Sean. Here's a picture of the goodbye. They promised to write to each other. At least we won't have to look up the address.



NanaPopPop watched the kids today while we were at the closing. They reported that Beck took 13 steps - a new personal best. A perfect time to board the long airplane ride to New Zealand.

Packed up

Our belongings are now in this truck on their way to storage. It looks like everything will fit in a 20' container.

Hiring movers is one of the best investments so far. You can never be ready for them to start packing though. We just realized that they packed the high speed internet equipment that we're supposed to return to our internet provider when we cancel their service. The movers scoop up and pack everything in their path. We shudder to consider what we'll discover when we unpack our stuff.



Another step along the way.

On Our Way

Welcome to our blog! Here you'll find information about the Weber's tour of New Zealand.

Here's the progress so far:

We're still in Colorado at Amy's Dad and stepmother's house, and leave in one week for San Francisco. We'll stay there for a few days visiting with Andrea and Amy's cousins and aunties, then leave for New Zealand on the 4th of December. In our last few days here we'll be busy cleaning the house, closing on Tuesday, and saying goodbyes to our friends and loved ones.

Oliver has handed his notice in at work and his last day will be Monday, November 26. Now he's not sure what to do with all of his suits and ties. Padding for packing the china and glassware perhaps?

We sold the Subaru (yesterday) and still have the Mini and a few other items to get rid of and sell (anyone want an antique pie safe, a color wheel for an old aluminium Christmas tree, or loads and loads of paper to be recycled?). As we lighten our load, and have fewer and possessions we begin to feel more free. We can't believe the amount of stuff we donated, gave away, and sold. Slowly we're getting there. It feels good.

The house is packed up and our stuff will be moved into storage tomorrow. It boggles our brains how three men were able to pack up our entire home in three hours. However they did it, it was well worth the investment. It would have taken us three weeks to do, and much more frustration.

We can't believe we're this far along in the adventure so far. It feels like somebody else's life. We're excited to be doing what we're doing, and feel grateful that everything has worked out so far.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We're grateful to have you in our lives and for your support in our adventure.

Welcome

Welcome to the The World Wide Weber's Weblog. If you're interested in what the Weber family (Amy, Oliver, Quinne, & Beck) are up to; you've come to the right place.