On the Road Again…

We are preparing to move out of our fab rental this week and into…wait for it….an executive apartment followed by a friend’s cottage, then another apartment, up north to a hotel, then a cottage on Waiheke Island followed by a friend’s place….deep breath….flying to Queenstown on the South Island for New Years and then back to same friend’s place until we take possession of our new home in January. It sounds a lot worse than it is. Homeless but not really. Homeless with an asterisk.

I have had to take a step back and just treat this like a super-sized vacation. It would have been ideal if the expiry of our rental lined up with taking possession of the new house but wide lens? We aren’t shattered. Girls finish school next Tuesday so we will be less on a schedule making the downtown hotel life liveable. I have insisted on a kitchen everywhere we go and a pinky-swear from my husband that we will only eat dinner out once a week – that is a slippery slope my ass can’t handle right now. I have organized for two bedrooms everywhere so we all have space to spread out and have ensured laundry facilities including a dryer that works which is a bit of an anomaly in NZ.

The rest of my survival plan is as follows:

The Carry-On Life

We have done it before. We travelled Australia from tip to toe for three weeks summer before last – all with carry-on only – and we need to do it again. This time, for four weeks. It just takes a bit of clever planning (working on it!) and laundry facilities (check!!). Summer has arrived in Auckland so we won’t need anything bulky and you can get away with casual almost everywhere so I can check sweaters and dressier bits off of my pack list. It is the shoes that will be the death of me.

Truth is – I love living with less. I have been living from a bag since July and not a particularly well packed bag at that. It has worked (except for black tie dinners) and has been a reminder that we don’t need all that much. We really don’t.

Eating Right

Despite said homelessness for the next month, we will eat well dammit. I insist on it. So I have packed my “eat right” satchel with everything I may need to turn any fresh meat, fish and veg into a meal. Oils, vinegars, seasonings, baking basics have all a found home in one of two strapped cooler bags that will come with us everywhere we go. Saves getting those basics again and again and again. And again. And the fatigue that inevitably comes from getting said basics over and over again and the resorting to eating out. Do you see the vicious cycle?

We will see parts of this country we haven’t yet had a chance to see and maybe wouldn’t have this coming holiday if our circumstances weren’t what they are. Glass half full. With an asterisk.

The asterisk here is that my stepson Jake and my sister and her family are with us for this entire circus month. Glass couldn’t be more wonderfully full.