Farewell to Nika and life back on land
18 December 2015
First Mate Linda
As we begin settling back into life on land, our NZ and South Pacific journey seems like a dream. I am going to keep our blog going for a little bit longer because I want to capture how we settle back into an everyday routine. So many blogs I read cover only the cruising, and not how they adjust settling back after such an incredible experience.
Nika has been officially handed over to her new owners on the Gold Coast, so hopefully she will continue to give as much joy as she gave us. It was sad to step off so suddenly, but we would be crazy to pass on the offer.
While I took to easy option and flew home with Grace and Rose, Craig and Olivia had to tough job of packing up all of our personal belongings and cramming as much as they could into the "Juicy" campervan. They had to sacrifice all of our remaining food (2 large boxes) and two boogie boards, which we gave to our new friends on "AnnieT", Rick and Zoe.
Grace had fun at her secondary school orientation, meeting heaps of new friends and mixing with those she knew. Mentone Girls Secondary have eight year 7 classes next year.. that is about 200 new students! Huge!! She has been popped into Japanese /band form, and playing flute. Her uniform, school bag and books / stationery has been ordered so we are all set for her start in 2016.
Grace was also excited to attend her grade 6 graduation ceremony with her Cheltenham PS classmates, and while she has officially completed grade 6 through DECV, she has spent the final two weeks of the school year with her class at Cheltenham. It has been so lovely to see her welcomed back into the school, and also Rose who has settled in as a bit of a transition into mainstream schooling in readiness for grade 1. Both girls have been busy re-igniting friendships and catching up with what has happened during our year away.
Once all of the packing of Nika was completed, Craig and Olivia decided to enjoy the drive south and took the opportunity to check out the surf breaks along the way. Rick and Zoe gave Olivia some tips of surfing and she is now carving it up with the big kids, and can't get enough of it. This has conveniently shown a need for Craig to purchase a surfboard of his own as Olivia is now catching the big waves at the back, where Craig cannot stand to help her.
We are all now back together and the five of us are cosy in Sonia's unit in Glen Iris. It has been a bit crazy, and I am conscious of the extra chaos 5 people bring, but Sonia seems to be genuinely enjoying having us here, as is her dog Molly who is getting an overdose of attention. Craig is making up for the chaos by doing a few odd jobs around her home. The tenants move out of our home by Dec 31st, and we will be looking forward to spreading out once again. After a 4 cabin yacht, our house will seem huge. We have booked in to have our floors re-sanded, and will be re-painting so we will probably move back in towards the middle of January.
It has been great catching up with friends and family (especially getting to hang out with our gorgeous new nephew Sebastian). Everyone is interested in hearing of our journey and I have tried to share our experience through our blog. I will always read back over it and look over the photos myself as we have so many happy memories, and made so many new friends along the way.
When we meet up with friends, and they ask "how was your holiday?", it is so hard to explain without going on and on for hours!. How do you summarise a whole year in a few short sentences? Amazing, life-changing, an incredible experience, our favourite places (there are so many)?. All of those things plus so much more. To have the opportunity to spend so much time in each other's company (and survive!) has been so cool. Very few families get the chance to do what we have done, and it is definitely a life-style which will not appeal to many families, but we are quite adventurous and it worked well for us!
Now to face the realities of life back home.. Craig has been shooting off resumes for roles and reaching out to all of his business contacts in search of some work. The girls have all been enrolled in schools with fees paid and uniforms ordered. They have all been placed in their classes for next year and met their teachers and friends who they will be with, and I have started looking into which after school activities we will tackle next year. Now we just need to survive CHRISTMAS (yikes!), move back into our home, and then enjoy the summer (yay!!