the beginning of the end

Well, its here. The container has arrived, marking the beginning of the end of the adventure. Mixed feelings. Excitement about returning home. Sadness at leaving. Panic attacks at 2am at the thought of what needs to be done before we leave and what needs to be done when we get home. And more excitement at the fun bit in the middle when we travel.

We decided that we needed to get our stuff back as economically as possible and decided to avoid removal companies and do it our selves using a freight forwarding company. So far its been way cheaper and easy to organise. But until we've unpacked our stuff in Norwich its too soon to say. It does of course mean that we've got to do all the donkey work in packing and securing our stuff. Sean is giddy with tension and rushing at getting it all packed. Jenn and the boys are being patient as the thing doesn't get collected until Tuesday - thats a whole five days! Plus if we pack it all now we can't use our stuff! So we gave him a cold beer and a pat on the back and all is calm again.

We have also sold the Mondeo. Good old Trade Me classified add. Posted on the monday, sold and cash clutched in our sweaty palms by Thursday. Yay! Sean is looking forward to sitting in a van again and has been perusing the classifieds back home for a likely suspect. So it was off to the kiwi bank to buy some pounds. Good job the exchange rate went our way - thats been a first!

Just 7 days to go before we board the train out of Christchurch and 22 days before we step of the plane at Heathrow and Jenn gets to kiss the ground.