2 sleeps...

We fly out the day after tomorrow!  After so many months planning and preparing, it feels almost surreal to type that, but 48 hours from now we will be halfway to Los Angeles.

We had a beautiful day today.  We had promised the kids that one of the things we would do this week was visit the Wellington Zoo, just as we had when they were little.  So Kate checked online to see what keeper talks were on and when.  She planned the whole thing out for us - we arrived in time for the keeper talk at the meerkats, then essentially followed the keeper talks about (with some time in between to see other animals). 

Kate's highlight was the cotton-top tamarins; I always love the red pandas.  Grant reckons it's hard to choose between the kaka, and the otter talk in the Wild theatre.  Jared has gone to bed so I can't ask him!  We didn't leave the zoo until 4pm, and had such a great time.



This evening we went to see the Badger family to say our farewells to them, and pick their brains a little about fun things to see in Seattle.  It sounds like Bill Speedle's Underground Tour has made it onto our to-do list, as well as the Frank Gehry-designed Science Fiction Museum.

Time to hit the hay now - we seem to have a frighteningly long list of things to do on our last day in Wellington!

3 sleeps...

The family was split up today - Jared started back at Massey, with classes all the way through from 9 until 5; Grant went fishing and Kate and I spent the day doing a few nostalgia things (along with mundane stuff like groceries).

The fishing trip was a success; a lovely calm day and Grant came home tonight with, terakihi and kawahai.  Fresh snapper fillets for dinner - delicious!

We got a few more of those little jobs out of the way too, so we are that much closer to being ready.

Jenna and Paul came over tonight to say goodbye, which was very lovely.  While it will be so cool to get on the plane on Friday, there are still a few people I wish I had time to see, but I think it's not to be.

5 sleeps, 4 sleeps...

We were so tired after Kate's party that we crashed last night without updating.  Yesterday was a little bittersweet, we had a lovely time with family but then had to say our farewells.  Paul had to be at the airport at 10.30, so we all (my parents, Grant's parents, Fiona, Paul and ourselves) went and had breakfast at Astoria.  They were very accommodating about putting tables together for nine of us!!  I said farewell to Paul at the cafe and Grant braved the annual Round the Bays Fun Run traffic issues to get him to the airport on time!
Grant's parents were the next to head home; it was very hard saying goodbye, and a year started to feel like a very long time.  We then went with my parents to visit Christian and his family; they had hosted Gabi and her boys for the party so it was my turn to say goodbye to family.  Thank goodness for Skype!
The rest of Sunday was very quiet; Grant did some work in the garden (thank you darling!) and we tried to get an early night.
Today has been a lovely day of spending time with Kate and Jared.  We took the East by West ferry to Matiu/Somes Island, and spent a couple of hours admiring the scenery and wildlife and good company.

It did take us some time but we finally spotted a tuatara soaking up the sun too, before continuing the ferry trip over to Days Bay.  We had a lovely lunch at the Days Bay Pavilion, then wandered up to Eastbourne Village to sample the wonderful gelato made at Gellicious Gelato.  Kate and I had orange and poppy seed, Jared had lemon and Grant had watermelon. Very yummy!  We got back to Days Bay a little early for the ferry, so stopped for drinks and to finish the crossword all together.  We were all pretty tired once we finally got back to the Wellington, and Grant was needed for one last phone call at work.
 
We did have a wonderful time together, and Wellington put on a beautiful day for us.



 Kate made dinner for us all tonight (she is now officially the god of pies, in her own words!), and Grant and Jared have gone to Grant's last tennis practice.  It's another early night if possible; Grant is off fishing with some friends tomorrow which means a horribly early start.

6 sleeps...

What an amazing day!!  The last of the major milestones - and the most major - was Kate's 21st birthday today.  Grant and Jared had to play tennis (sadly their team lost on a count-back) while I had to finish Kate's cake.  It felt like an insurmountable task, but ended up looking absolutely beautiful and Kate was really pleased with it.  Once the icing was finished, Nana, Poppa and I took Kate out for a birthday brunch at a cafe near Grant's tennis match.  We timed it perfectly so that Grant could come and join us between his doubles and singles matches.

My parents joined us in the afternoon and we all prepared for the party.  Grant and I didn't dress up in our costumes until we got to the venue as it turned out to be really warm.  I think we both deserve to be congratulated for lasting the whole (warm) evening in our long-sleeved costumes!  The party was just great, Joe's Garage is a superb venue and the staff were wonderful.  All the guests made an effort with costumes so it was such fun watching them arrive.  It still seems a little surreal that our baby can be 21, but I guess if she weren't we wouldn't be heading off on our adventure. 

Sleep number 6 is going to be a bit short I think as it is now nearly midnight!  We have a very full house but it is so lovely to get these chances to spend time with family.

7 sleeps...

Actually, it's really six now but this post is about yesterday!  It was Grant's last day at work, so quite a milestone really.  Next week we will be able to prepare together for the actual departure.  I don't know much about the actual doings of the last day, but I know he was very touched about his gift.  And Rachel made a cool cake with an Air New Zealand plane on it.  Of course even though Grant always takes photos of the cakes Rachel makes for other people, he didn't take a picture of this one!
Kate and I iced her cake with chocolate ganache, in preparation for the green vines and leaves.  However we ended up going out to meet Nana and Poppa at the Fisherman's Table for lunch so we ran out of time to finish.  Tomorrow is another day.
At 4.30, we met up with many friends and colleagues at the Backbencher for farewell drinks; it was great to catch up with people we haven't seen for a wee while.  Sam and Leanne gave us a lovely hand-bag sized book about the London museums - it's going to be great fun ticking those off!  And Steven and Claudia gave us a cool passport folder - it's something I have looked at several times and thought, no, we will manage fine without that.  But it is great to have one to keep all those important documents sorted.
It was a long long day though, and that seventh sleep was very welcome!!

8 sleeps...

Today has been ridiculously (and surprisingly) busy.  But most of the icing roses for Kate's birthday cake are made, the costumes are collected and things are starting to look vaguely sorted for Saturday night.  Also Braedon made sure we have some Hashigo Zake stickers for our luggage!  Slightly more appropriate for Grant than for me, but Braedon is right, luggage is cooler with lots of stickers on it.  We might have to collect stickers for our luggage from every city we visit.

Wellington continues to display its worst summer weather for us; I nearly lost a car door and crossing Mulgrave Street at the Featherston Street intersection was a real challenge.  I also undertook a mission to rescue some tomato plants hammered by the wind.  They do have lots of flowers so hopefully the kids will actually get to enjoy some tomatoes if the weather ever improves.

9 sleeps...

It's been a very busy day today, just carrying on getting the house sorted.  We put up Kate's shelves today so she could sort and empty the box of things out of the room that will be Ian's.  I also finished sorting through my wardrobe and bedroom shelves; the only things left hanging up are to go in the suitcase next week!  The mantelpiece is also clear so Fi can put up her own ornaments and photos if she wants to.

Kate and I also had a wonderful time this afternoon sharing a farewell high tea at Martha's Pantry with my Hutt Valley High School friends Jenna, Ria, Hayley and Gemma.  Thanks for a lovely afternoon girls!

All this has been done while dodging raindrops.  Clearly Wellington is setting out to show us the things we won't be missing!

Counting down - 10 sleeps left at home

It is starting to get real now, although there still seems to be a lot to happen before we go.  February has been a busy month with a number of milestones.

We had our 20th Wedding Anniversary on 15 February.  It seems strange that after 20+ years together, we are finally going to get to spend a year together - just us.  Hopefully this is the start of plenty more wonderful years together and not the start of driving each other crazy.  Thanks to Jared for starting work at 6.30am that day, we got to witness this amazing sunrise from the Wellington waterfront - we are surely going to miss this place.


Kate has also been busy.  She has taken the bull by the horns and proceeded to publish her book herself - in electronic format.  This means that for the bargain price of US$1.99 you could have your own copy of her first published work "Blackmoon".  It is teen fantasy and a page-turning read.  She really does have a knack with words and an interesting imagination.  It's at Smashwords.com - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/134303 and you'll find it for your Kindle, Ipad etc.

Four weeks to go

We are now just four weeks out from departure.  This seems like so little time and I started panicking about how much there was to do in such a short time - then I made a mental list and realised that actually I have done most of it.  So maybe the next four weeks will go quite slowly and allow us to spend time with our children and friends.  Yeah right.  Somehow I expect that these last four weeks will simply disappear in a blur, and while most of me is so excited to be going on this adventure, I am also beginning to realise just how much I will miss the kids.