16 December 2017.

Packing, packing, packing. It is the worst.

While Chae is away I have decided to get a head start on the packing. I have a feeling that he will get home, Christmas will be right in front of us, as will the need to sort out the boat after her long passage and get it ready for our summer holiday!

We plan on spending the month of Jan in the Bay of Islands, having a real shakedown cruise with all of us aboard, getting used to our new home. We had talked about leaving before Christmas and having that on the boat too, but with the time that it has taken to get her home, I am guessing Chae won’t be rushing to get back on her! Shame really, as I am pretty keen!

So, I have been packing. All the stuff that is non-essential and that we won’t be taking on board or using within the next 6 weeks.

It has really made me realise how much ‘stuff’ we have.

So much.

Books, clothes, shoes, bedding, kitchenware, furniture, knick knacks, the list goes on.

It is an incredible amount, once it is all out of the cupboards and drawers that is has sat hidden, collecting dust.

So many unnecessary things that we all buy and keep.

I am looking forward to living more simply. To taking only the very real things that we need and parting with a lot of the rest.

There are many reasons that we have decided to follow this path, one of them being the desire to live with less. We as humans work and work to buy and buy. If we all really think about it, things don’t make us happy. Sure, they can help, but for us it is the experiences and the ways you choose to spend your time that are the important things. This becomes so apparent when you have children, as they are such a marker of time passing before your eyes. You end up wanting to enjoy and experience every minute of their time growing up before they too go to live their own lives.

We will take a bunch of our things to make Waterhorse our new home. But it won’t be much. Once she is home an inventory of what is on there already will be done and the rest of the packing can start in earnest.

There is also a lot that is going on Trade Me. Much of the soft furnishings like beds and couches don’t store well, so we will have to make decisions on what is kept and what will go.

We plan on renting or buying a container to put on Chae’s parents farm and put everything in there, so we are also limited by the amount we will be able to fit. Storage places, I have found out, are stupidly expensive, especially for long term. Could be a new game to get into once we are home with the prices they charge! We would be rich many times over….!!

It is going to be a big job, and I am not really looking forward to it. At least I will have Chae home to help with the bulk of it, plus a small break away all together before the hard stuff begins…