Dubai

Dear Spook
Your children did well on the long haul. I gave the anit=histamine just as we were taxi-ing down the runway at which point Meg voiced concerns about being allergic to it! That turned out not be the case although she was a little sick - exhaustion and doubly tired as mum drugged the children and then mum was the only one who could sleep!! Finn coped with the turbulence but when the sound of beautiful birds came all around us, I think, by the look on the childrens faces, they thought there was a hole in the roof. The opposite of the desired effect.
We have to go straight on to the final leg of the journey now and are thinking of you all the time.
xx

Sydney

Good flight Chrsitchurch to Sydney but awful to leave Spook behind. We have never gone through that before. but the children absorb things well. Finn did try the 'trouble teenager of single mum' routine. I had to nip that in the bud pretty quick, but the customs must have thought I was a hippy single mum with colourful clothing and bedraggled look as I got a thorough search and drug 'wipe' - not of anything too personal, you understand.
WE have about 3 hours to kill here and the kids would love to be able to get outside and feel Australia, but that is not an option. We had a horrible thought that we had to go via Bankok as well as Dubai, but that was just a continuation of the flight that we left in Sydney. We just have a 14.5 hour flight to Dubai, so suddenly that seems a breeze. We have the chill pills, so fingers crossed we will wake up in time for breakfast. It does feel uncomfortable to be putting more and more distance between us and Spook but once we all settle where we are meant to be just now, it will be fine. He got back to Wanaka around 8.15pm his time, so that wasn't too bad after a 6.30am start. Not to mention the 2am awakening. He has 2 days to recover now and get out running and cycling as well as packing all the things we couldn't take. In a magnificent gesture of selflessness, Meg handed over her bag of 'teenage girl' things as we were 7kg over. By the time we get on this next flight, it will be about 1am. The children will do well to be civil by that stage.
They are so ready to be home now, though it was very painful driving out of Wanaka.

Start of the last day.

spook and I woke up at 2am, started chatting at 3am, made tea at 5am. We went over the last year, the highlights and lowlights and put it as the biggest year in our lives as a family, so far. Feels like the beginning of an adventure rather than the end. We both feel quite excited today. We turned on the computer and browsed about. We love Kiwiana as it represents a lot of what we have come to love. I was told by one individual, just before we came over, that the south island was racist, sexist and uncouth. (From someone who's son had spent a year here). Well, it's not as if we don't have any of that in Fort William!! We have encountered some incidents of that, but the overwhelming sense we have is of a warm, hospitable people, who are interested in the world, and we could count on both hands the number of people we felt we could turn to if we were ever in trouble. To be on the over side of the world and feel that, is quite special. So the children and I leave in a very positive frame of mind - apart from Finn who is still a bit annoyed with us for upsetting his equilibrium as he was quite happy being happy in Fort William, thankyou very much, and now he has to be sad about leaving everything that is good about Wanaka. The two Mitre 10 adverts still make us laugh and give a flavour of the humour here, but we do have one more which keeps up the Ozzie/Kiwi differences. Ozzies love vegemite, and Kiwi's are firmly in the Marmite camp. Meg, Finn and all their friends do this atrocious Ozzie accent, which is an total exageration, but amuses us.www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOE5pEX98CE
Will blog our way home.

Bye Bye.

First thing this morning we went and retrieved Finn from the Turner household. They are all set for a holiday up in Coromandel in the North Island. Steve has been in the States for 2 weeks so they'll meet him there. We will all miss them very much. Rosie the dog doesn't look too bothered though.

Finn got dropped off at Jack's (Victoria's wee brother) on the first run over to Spooks shed room. Kate Ferguson came up from Dunedin to say goodbye and she, Meg and Victoria went on some kind of jaunt in town which seemed to involve bumping into Rene and going back to her house for a dance party, going back to town and swimming in the lake, rescuing someones cell phone from the lake and getting free shots on the peddle boats as a reward. She had an excellent last day. Finn went for a cycle down by the river with Jack and was very happy with his day too.

Spook and I worked our butts off to get everything in order, including Finn's hair (for which we did require his presence) and a family coffee/chocolate in Kai - the bar that Spook phoned me from to say he had been offered 2 years of work over here. I nearly cried in the bank, hugged Sandy in the hairdressers as she has been looking after me (but not my hair once I realised I couldn't afford it) since I arrived, hugged Christy in the Art Gallery who was my partner in the art therapy course, and had to put me back together after it, dropped off my tomato canes to Pat and Kieth, so a wee hug there. She was just back from a triple heart bypass operation and at 82, looked quite fragile. Once all was where it should be, we got back in time to have a takeaway pizza with John and family. John will be a bit lost without Finn, and with Sam away for a couple of weeks. Finn went out skateboarding down the road, after refusing to do it for 8 months and I thought that now was not a good time to sustain a broken limb.

Kate came in from next door and did a rather severe inspection, which was unexpected, but as I had scrubbed far more than anyone had done before we came in, we were not too worried.

On our own now except for the Sinclairs on the other end of the phone line - more sad goodbyes there.

Early night and a 6am start tomorrow so that we have a hopefully stress free journey north.

grateful for:

hmmmmmm..............having got to this stage when everything fits in the Ute. That includes the large box to be delivered to the shipping company in Christchurch with the bikes etc, my road bike to be delivered to the buyer in Christchurch and huge bags stretching the 30kg limit. I hope that tomorrow, I will be grateful to have got them all through checkin. But at least with Spook staying at ground level, he can send anything home if necessary and that there will be no histrionics. It is a very sad Spook who has packed up his family to send away.

All this stuff can go in a bag...I think.

Finn appeared at the end of our bed at about 2am this morning, as a whispery shadow. He couldn't sleep with all the boys snoring next door, so was seeking permission to go to his own bed. Just as well he asked, as Meg was ensconced in his and it would not have been pleasant for any of us if he had tried to sneak in there.

Max came looking for him at 8.30am as they had started x-boxing again. Michaela came over at 9.30am and said he HAD to get out of bed as her mum was making pancakes and it was his party. I think they are trying to run him into the ground!! He slept-walked over to Max's.

I went to town to get chill-pills for the journey. I have to get the timing right so that I don't have to carry the children and the luggage onto the plane. Then I met Mary for our last coffee. If felt very natural to be sitting there. All that cleaning together must fast track friendships as I feel as if we have known each other for ever. No-one else is going to bring me coffee at just the crucial moment. I have to stand on my own two feet now. We didn't hug, shake hands or have any kind of histrionics. We just said "see you later", and both firmly believed it.

Finn nipped into the house in time to recieve a phone call from Sam. He just had time to go back next door and thank them for his party before running down to Sam's to stay there until they leave for a holiday in the North Island tomorrow morning. Shannon noted that he was still wearing the same clothes since he arrived at her's a couple of days ago. This concept of not washing or changing is new to her, but in a surprising wave of empathy, she realised that she had not been in the shower for 3 days herself. This of course, is not as disasterous as a 12 year old boy not showering. He has brushed his teeth in the passing.

Meg spent the day at Victoria's and Spook had a horrible day at the plant with things not going to plan.

So it was just as well I was at home in charge of .............stuff. This is how far I had got at 4pm coffee time. It doesn't look much better at 9pm but has actually taken a giant leap forward and Meg told me she was "very impressed"...............Phew!!!!

grateful for:

Spook's magical way with baggage allowance. And the fact that he is here to send on anything precious that doesn't fit in. Finn and I have next to nothing, and Meg has all the trappings of a teenager. Out of a 30kg allowance each, we are at maximum capacity with Finn and I using about 10kg each. So I would add in gratitude for Spooks amazing ability to absorb all the things that Meg casually presents him with as a 'must'.

Meg's work 'night' out.

Day light saving time today so we moved our clocks forward. I think that puts us at the 12 hour difference now, rather than the 13. I had coffee with Anne and her husband Guy (John's parents) and then came home and tried to make it looked as if we have packed. But there still is so much stuff not in a bag or a box, I wonder if we can squeeze it all into Spooks new abode.

Finn stayed at Sam's and Meg and I walked down to the lakeside to meet Cathie and Tim, Meg's boss and husband. They whizzed us off to Mow hau (I think) Island on Lake Wanaka, along with Cathie's colleague Pip, her husband Ross and daughter Sarah. Cathie and Tim in the red hats and Ross looking grumpy which was certainly not his nature. We had a great picnic and Cathie proposed a toast to Meg as this trip was in honour of her. She had a bagful of gifts and an amazingly good reference. She made a great impression on them. We all got on very well and there seemed to be a strong Kiwi/Scot connection.

There is a wee lake on the top of the island which would be a lochan in Scotland. With weather closing in, it all looked a bit more like Scotland.

Finn has been hauled back from Sam's because Max has organised an xbox party for him. I think it will be a break to get on the plane. After being the focus of attention for the last 3 weeks, we will wonder what has happened!!!!

grateful for:

still having 3 sleeps left with us all together.

Running out of Steam

The weather forecast on the radio said there was a bit of wind and cloud in Wanaka today. It is true that the wind chime did move a little and there was about 3 clouds in the sky so it was no lie. Spook and I had breakfast outside in between his work comittments. Finn made a feeble attempt to get a haircut but didn't get out of bed in time, so he is still sporting a mane. We have two working days to tame it and the same to get some drugs from the doctor to knock us out for 30hrs of travelling. Meg went to Tessa's out at Dublin Bay to go horse riding. Finn went to see Sam at the O'Briens house and Meg and I met Spook at Pete and Carol's house out at Hawea Flat. Pete the Paddler is away, but Meg wanted to say goodbye to her favourite teacher. (gym and health). We had coffee, cake and a game of football with her boys. Spook will catch up with Pete at a later date. It's been pretty hectic and Spook is too tired to go out to Hawea tonight, so I will go and meet the girls myself. I think that wee grin on his face is the thought of 10 weeks of peace and quiet.

He doesn't understand what I mean when I say I was the only one who broke a glass. At the fashion evening, there was wine. And expensive clothes. There was a table full of childrens clothing and I knocked a glass over whilst waving my hands about in an expressive manner. Thankfully it was empty or I would have had to spend a flight's worth on baby wear. It did take the attention away from the rails of clothes. (but when the hostess was sweeping up the glass from the floor, I suspect she noticed my slippers)

This is truly the count down now. Last Saturday night. Last weekend.

grateful for:

the man turning up with our car and paying the rest of the money. Yesterday he paid half the money and asked if he could use the car to look at some houses for rent. Today his mechanic was going to check it over to confirm it was sound and then he would pay the rest of the money. Meanwhile he said he would just take the paperwork so that he could sort out the change of ownership. So when he didn't return Spooks txts this morning, Spook did wonder if giving him the paper work - never mind the car- was perhaps a little hasty.