Almost home

As I await bedtime the night before departing for the US…..I realize this is the 4th time now that I’ve experienced the pre-leaving NZ blues. I have just completed my 3rd return to this beautiful place since we lived here as a family in 2008. This trip was much the same as the other 2 return trips over the past year, yet it was somehow different. I’m not sure whether it is the growing familiarity of the trip itself, the certainty that I’ll be back twice more this year, or the fact that we are now actually homeowners in this country that has made it different. The other times, I’ve felt a sense of urgency to do all the things I wanted to do to re-experience the time when we actually lived here. This time it was like being home in some ways. Spending a day alternately lounging around the house and going out for a walk on the beach seemed just fine.

Yesterday Abby and I took a walk next door to Campbell Park where I ran into the tenant who lives in our house. We chatted. He told me how much he loves the house and Abby and I told him how much we loved it, too. Earlier this week, as we took an after dinner walk on the beach, we ran into some people we knew when we lived here and they said “oh, hi….did you guys really ever leave?” In many ways, it seems like we belong here. Each time, I long more to be here permanently yet as time goes on, I also feel less of a sense of urgency about it. I know this place and our house are here for us. They’re waiting and so are we.

A few highlights of the week. I so enjoyed spending this time alone with Abby. We went to our old haunts in Wellington, we ran on the beach, Abby went to school while I worked (one boy at school declared his love for her), the others welcomed her, she was choreographed into multiple dance numbers at Aidan, Naomi, and Ayla’s dance class....and I even went swimming today! We had dinner at Jennifer and Michael’s friend’s house in Wellington (one Kiwi, one Brit, and 5 Americans). Tomorrow we will spend our last day in Wellington walking through the Botanical Garden, bungie jumping, and, yes, shopping.

We have missed the rest of our family and wish they could be here with us. Becky and I are hatching a plan for us all to come here next spring (or is it fall? Which hemisphere are we in?). I feel so grateful that we have this place. Until next time.....

Pictures are of: Abby and Naomi playing in the sand today after boogie boarding; Abby in Wellington; Abby in the Aukland airport; sunrise out the back of the house on our first moring here