After nearly 300 days of waiting to return to France we are now on the way North. YYYYYEEEESSS! A lovely view of Mt Taranaki peeping through the cloud en route to Auckland. We have found the last few weeks hard work with having to pack up the entire house and squeeze it into the garage, and it has been a bit stressful. We hope never to rent our house unfurnished again! We were always looking for something only to find it had already been safely stored in a box buried deep in the garage. However it will pay the bills and it's behind us now.
Had an exciting last day in Nelson. A message arrived overnight from our Céret syndic (the apartment body corporate) saying they had unanimously approved our proposal to use the attic for a roof terrace and a second bedroom. Awesome news. We still have a number of hurdles to jump, including financial, but it's a great start. Also, we received an acceptable offer for the section down the Coast that we've been trying to sell for several years. Hopefully that will go through.
We have managed to leave carrying some 78 kilos. Ouch! Three bags of 20kgs, the two cabin bags of 4-5kgs and a laptop each (did I mention the four books tucked in the pocket of my winter jacket?). This gross excess is caused by staying over winter this year, hence a whole lot of cold weather clothing. It's not helped by taking some big bags of our home-made muesli, as we are not great fans of French muesli, with its 16-18% sugar content. It's okay if you think we are mad.
Next up is catching up with Bella and Nic, then Alastair on Saturday morning, and Karen's father's 90th birthday party in the afternoon. It should be lots of fun.
