With less than a week to go and still no cabin or caravan organised it's been looking like we could be up s*** creek without a paddle. We weren't having much luck with the cabin companies and so Dad started looking into the possibility of purchasing a 1970s or 1980s Kiwi caravan. There were none suitable in Northland, but were some available in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty, that are listed on Trade Me. Then yesterday afternoon Dad got a call from Highlander Acc...

Last night we had an early dinner at Ilonka's house before going up to Chris' place to look at our house plans. We picked Dad up on the way. Paul and I were both really happy with how the plans have come out. Chris uses a computer programme that enables you to rotate a 3D drawing of the house and see it from all angles. It makes it easy to visualise what our house will look like once it's finished. He's put the house on a twenty degree angle so that we get more s...

It's a rainy Sunday morning - perfect for cooking and packing. There's been lots to think about this week so thought I would do a blog update first. Wednesday afternoon we had a bank appointment at Westpac. It wasn't as productive as I was hoping. I think I actually went away with more questions than answers, but that's okay. We discussed the structure of our loan and talked about different ways we could do it. It's split into two parts - the land and the buildi...

Today Paul and I have been together for six years! Thank you for all the amazing adventures, Paul. I can't wait to start our next one together. We have booked three nights at Breakers in Whangamata for the start of January. Because we're going to be living on tins of spaghetti and my year supply of Vogel's toast it's going to be our anniversary and Christmas present to each other. We've booked one of the downstairs units right beside the pool. There's going to b...

This morning we drove out to Kauri to look at caravans. They currently have two caravans available for long term hireage at North City Caravans. There is also another one that is due back at the yard next week. Both caravans look quite tired on the outside, but were clean and tidy on the inside. The one we think we will hire is a 25 ft caravan. It has a double bed, a table with seating on both sides, a corner couch, as well as its own shower. It was bigger than w...