Some years ago I left Australia with an international air ticket in hand and just $38 dollars to my name. Somehow I managed to work and travel my way around the globe for the most part of a year. As my oldest friends will tell you, for much of my adult life it was a case of now you see him, now you don’t. Moving across the country on the spur of the moment, calling to let people know what I am doing after I have done it. So why is this move to New Zealand, a small hop across the ocean, providing so much more emotion for me? I lay awake most mornings before I get up thinking about this, not worrying but thinking deeply about what lays before me. I believe there is no answer to my question. Just let it be and enjoy the experience.

I am on holidays again and have continued to slowly pack up the house. Slowly I say, because I am finding it difficult to pick up an item and not remember where it came from, who gave it to me/us and what memories are associated with it. Then I have to decide whether to pack it into storage, give it away, throw it out or keep it to take to New Zealand. At the moment, that is what my life feels like – I am choosing the memories I want to keep and the ones I want to dispose of. It’s a bit surreal but at the same time liberating. This move is a great opportunity to clear out the clutter and material possessions which somehow have become so integral in my existence. Never have I spent so much of my adult life in one place – almost 8 years.

On the planning front, this is the latest. My dear mother and nieces came to stay for a few days and helped do some serious cleaning. Mum will be back in a few weeks again, when most of the furniture has been moved and we will get cleaning again. The emus went to their new home on the weekend and the last of my peafowl, pigeons and turkeys will be going this morning. This will leave us with a few chooks and the two dogs. It is so quiet around here now. We have been catching up with as many people as possible along the way and there are still more to see. I can only hope that we see everyone we want to before we depart.

Overall, while there are negatives, everything is outweighed by a renewed spirit of adventure. This journey is turning out to be much better than the original exchange we had planned. I will never thank the two NZ keepers, but I am glad they pulled out of the deal now. They were the worst part of this whole plan to go to NZ. We now have so much more flexibility with our adventure – where to live, car to drive, pets to have etc. We will be going over on our own terms and not bound by the association of others.

To sum up my situation at the moment, there is a piece by Michael Leunig which I have long cherished.

Overlooking my life so far
"In my life I had accumulated many things in my head - too many things. Memories, tunes, facts, fears, visions, loves, etc., etc. As many as possible. In a fertile mind, such things will interbreed. Mongrel visions are born; hybrid memories; inbred memories, idiot love. It gets very confusing.
I decided it was time for a good clean-up, so I emptied all this out of my head and pushed it into a big heap to sort it out. There is was - everything that was me, all in a big jumbled heap. I walked around it. What a mess!
Then suddenly I saw it in silhouette and realised what it was. It was a heap. A simple heap. You don't sort it out, you climb it. You climb it because it is there. Excitedly I clambered to the summit and raised a flag. I was now looking beyond everything that I knew. The view was simply…….magnificent!."