Once we made the decision to return to the States, it started a long chain of logistics to make the move, which culminated Saturday. On Wednesday I bicycled to work, then left my bike with Keith who I will rent a room from on my return. Thursday was Sarah’s last day here, and we took her to the airport for her return to Reed. Friday I left my car at work with everything packed in it for my return. Then yesterday started early with our garage sale. The hard-core garage salers start early here, so we scheduled ours to start at 7:00 A.M. – When I opened the garage door at 6:30, there were already a couple people waiting! It was non-stop for the next couple hours, then slowing to a dribble with most all our remaining household goods gone. By noon we had cleaned-up and put the remaining items out for the Salvation Army, giving us time for a final walk down to Milford for lunch. Then back to greet the carpet cleaner, the property manager for final inspection, and then our shuttle to the airport hotel. Since we decided to bring our stuff as excess baggage rather than ship it, we were each traveling with a bicycle box, a second suitcase or box, then each bringing another box as an excess piece. With each piece being a maximum of 32 kgs (70 lbs), we had 9 very heavy pieces of baggage! But still, much cheaper than going by sea for a limited amount of stuff. Luckily the hotel was able to switch our second floor room for a street-level one, so we could unload boxes directly into the room. Finally, a relaxing evening before tackling the flights back home!
Archive for August, 2006
Ready, Set, Go!
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006Tiritiri Matangi Island Bird Sanctuary
Sunday, August 27th, 2006
In addition to getting ready to head back to the States, we’ve been squeezing-in a couple last trips – the caving trip Sarah and I did, and a family trip to Tiritiri Matangi.
The past couple weekends were our last chances for a family excursions before heading back to the States. We had been wanting to visit a couple of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf – Waiheke, which sounds a lot like Bainbridge Island, Rangitoto, a recent volcanic addition to the Gulf (only 600 years ago), and Tiritiri Matangi, a nature preserve. One weekend Cindy had her last miniature group meeting, so Sarah and Max and I were going to go to Rangitoto and hike to the top. It turned out to be quite rainy, so we went to a movie instead. But then the weather looked good this past weekend, so we all headed to Gulf Harbour to catch the morning Kawau Cat ferry over to Tiritiri.
Tiritiri used to be farmed, but since the 1970′s has been a nature preserve. A huge effort by volunteers and the Department of Conservation have eradicated invasive species that have devastated the native bird populations (rats, stoats, possums), and re-planted native trees over most of the island. The volunteer group, the Supporters of Tiritiri, maintain a great website with information on all the native birds and trees restored to the island. They also conduct tours on the island, so we went along with Vic and Des, who told us so much about the plants and birds over the next couple hours – fantastic! With their sharp eyes, we spotted many species during our walk around the island.
After warming up over lunch and hot tea in their visitors center, we had a delightful wander along paths back to the afternoon ferry and the trip home.
Photos are here.
Caving near Port Waikato
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
What’s with all the caving anyway? I decided that of all the opportunities for activities down here, caving is the one that we don’t have too much of around the Northwest. Also, Sarah is a willing caving partner, whereas for some reason Cindy and Max don’t like crawling around in the mud and water underground! (I can’t imaging why!) So, while the kayak has been sitting neglected since Coastbusters, and before Sarah headed back to college, we fit in one more trip, this time to Puriri Cave near Port Waikato with the Auckland Speleo Group.
It had been raining heavily, and the rivers were swollen and flooding. We had quite a scramble up a muddy slope and cross-country to the cave entrance. I asked about the stream level in the cave, but “no worries”, you don’t have to worry about that in most North Island caves. We had about fifteen people, so we split into a few groups, and spaced-out our entering. It was a fairly typical stream passage cave, with a couple of side passages to explore. Sarah and I had both woken up at the wrong point in our sleep cycles, and had been quite tired and groggy all day. After a lunch break, we had reached a point in the cave with a 20′ down-climb, which neither of us were too excited about. While we rested, some people had gone on ahead. Just as we were deciding to give it a go and carry on, word came back up that the water was too high further on. So, Sarah and I were saved having to face the down-climb just in the nick of time!
But then as we started back out, what had been a flowing stream was now quite a torrent! Instead of knee-high, it was waist-high and quite strong! Well, that got our adrenaline going, because we remembered there was a low crawl further on. When we reached that point, the group backed-up while taking turns crawling through the rising water. Sarah and I might have gone in feeling tired and groggy, but by the time we came back out, we were wide awake and thrilled by the cold rushing water and adrenaline!
We tromped back out to the road through the soggy ground, Sarah stopping to corral a tiny baby lamb back to its mother, observing water burbling-up out of the ground, and me sinking to the waist in a swamp crossing to the applause of the group! While the rest of the group went on to another cave, we hitched a ride back with Michael and his son Tommy (thank you!).
Photos are here.
Party Time!
Saturday, August 26th, 2006Cindy’s birthday was a low-key affair this year – I took the afternoon off, and we did her favorite things – lunch, a movie, and a walk on the beach! I had also stayed up late the night before putting up a birthday sign and streamers, and date scones with candles.
At Navman however, the annual cook-off was not a low-key affair! Employees from different countries each had booths where they cooked-up their favorite native foods! Kiwi, English, American, Malaysian, South African, Indian, Chinese, Benelux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg), Italian, Scottish, etc. The Irish of course only needed to serve Guinness as both food and drink!
Getting Ready
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
It’s been a month since I last wrote, because we were busy with Sandy still visiting, there were a lot of photos to get in order from our tour south, we’ve been busy getting ready to return to the States, trying to fit in a last couple trips, and oh yes – working full time and trying to get things wrapped-up there (though I will be returning late September to finally finish up).
The first couple weeks of Sandy’s visit was our big tour south. The last couple weeks was spent closer to home, since Max was back in school and I was back at work. We did a couple weekend day trips to the beaches, first to the black sands of Muriwai beach, then another to beautiful Anchor Bay at Tawharanui Regional Park, and up to Pakiri Beach.
We also introduced Sandy to our typical Sunday morning in New Zealand, hanging out at Dida’s cafe during Max’s Japanese sword (iaido) class.
It took me quite a while to get the photos from the tour south sorted – 500 photos trimmed down to only 250, labeled, tagged, tweaked, and uploaded to Flickr.
And of course we’ve been busy getting ready for our move back to the States. Our exit strategy primarily revolves around our “stuff”: What will fit on the plane, what to keep for my return, shipping options, selling furniture and household goods on TradeMe (New Zealand’s eBay), garage sale, and ultimately Salvation Army and garbage. There are a million-and-one things to consider, and every step of the way has options and questions – for airline baggage, What are the travel allowances? Which ones apply? – International, code share, domestic? Does a bicycle count as one piece? How much for extra? Kilograms versus pounds? And shipping options – shipping containers or excess baggage? Opportunities for sharing container space? Best tradeoffs? How about for books or my kayak?
Cindy and I have been very busy on TradeMe, selling off everything from bookshelves to appliances to Christmas decorations. Cindy keeps checking to see if there are bids on items, or how much they’ve gone up! Some things go for much more than you would think – a set of wicker furniture that we bought at a garage sale for $100 sold for $190, and $10 garage sale bookshelves went for $140!
Of course others didn’t sell for much, but on balance we probably broke even on what we spent buying the things in the first place, be it retail or garage sale.