Starting out

After picking up our Rockwood 2604WS from Auckland on 6 May, we were very happy to be escaping the rat race!  The weekend stop in Auckland was just long enough for us to get the big city buzz …. and it gave us a wonderful opportunity to catch up with family.  But that traffic was enough to remind us why we left the Big Smoke 2 years ago.

So we were glad to get finally get on the road and head up north after spending most of the Monday morning at the Rockwood farm up in Dairy Flats getting the last minute fittings done to the caravan and to our ute.  Edwin rode in front pulling the caravan with Janet following behind in her car.  Unfortunately, we did not get the BMW sold before we left, so we just had to bring her along for the ride until we could get her sold.

The trip up to Whangarei went all well with Edwin doing a great job of towing and we arrived safely sometime around 4 pm at Whangarei Central Holiday Park.  It had been a long day so we were pretty exhausted.  And then it started to rain …..

Now all our worldly belongings were still in the Colorado Holden and the BMW  So with the rain, we decided to just pack out what we needed to make up our bed and get out the basics to make our night comfortable - the rest could wait

And so our new life started.  It really did feel quite surreal and unbelievable to think that we had finally reached this milestone in our lives!

In order to find our feet and get used our new home and tiny living, we decided to stay at this park for 2 weeks.  It was probably not the best park in the area (or so we heard from the locals), but we honestly had a lovely stay there.  It is actually quite a small park and was definitely in need of updating, but it was kept spotlessly clean and the facilities were superb - everything worked and the water was always hot.

From what I could gather the park had a stigma and a bit of bad rap because of the permanents staying there.  But we had no bad experience there.  Most of the permanent folks there we did not see much of and those that we meet in the facilities were very friendly and really nice folk.

What we found out was that the park had just been sold and 3 days before we arrived and we feel pretty sure that in time every effort will be made to improve this park ….. so watch the spot.

The park itself is right in the centre of Whangarei so for us this was very handy as we were still needing to stock up with food and other things that we needed.  So we obviously spent quite a lot of time in the shops.  But we also were able to spend time with family who we had not seen for quite a while.  So our family time there was a real treat.  Why we even got to experience 2 Saturdays of kiddies school rugby - something we had never done.

The only downside to our first out on the road experience was that we both got bad colds.  Even our little furbaby had the sniffles and sneezes after a few days.  So we were all feeling a little sorry for ourselves for those first few days or so.
also used the opportunity not only to get to know our new tiny home but to just take it easy and get better before we left on our next adventure.

So despite the cold bugs, our stay in Whangerei was a good experience.  We found that we settled easily into our new life in the caravan.

We did not take too many photos but here are a few:

Earlier I mentioned the facilities and how spotlessly clean they were.  Well, I was really impressed with them as I used the kitchen for cooking and cleaning dishes (did not want to mess up our new home LOL).  You be the judge …..

Such a lovely clean kitchen

A small but really comfy lounge/dining area

A sparkling clean dining area

And after 2 weeks, on 20 May, we hitched up our van ready for our next adventure:

All hitched and ready to leave

Just Stuff

So now that we decided it was time to live full time on the road ….. it was time to let go …. Let go of our house;  let go of our furniture, let go of all of our stuff.  And all this happened in a month!

Purging ourselves of all the material stuff that seemed to have had so much meaning in our lives for all of the past 10 years definitely did our heads in at the start of this process.  But once we got started on Project Downsize, it was amazing how easy it actually was.  Once you remove the emotion behind it, it becomes incredibly easy.  All that stuff became just that …. just stuff!  In fact, there was even relief in knowing that we would soon be rid of all the stuff that seems to weigh us down.

So once the sale of the house was in progress (and believe me that was certainly fraught with enough stress and drama to convince us to never to own another house again - but that is another story), we were faced with the decision of what to do about our furniture?  However this problem was quickly solved with the buyer of our house super keen to take over our furniture too - we couldn't have wished for a better solution to that problem.

Then the great purge on all that extra stuff that filled every room and our garage in our house started.  It took all of the last 2 weeks to frantically rid ourselves of everything surplus to our needs.  What we could not fit into our 9 metre caravan had to go!  Talk about taking minimalism to another level.

And before we knew it, the month of April had flown by, it was 3 May ….. our 5 bedroom house was no longer ours and all our worldly possession were loaded into our Holden Colorado and BMW car and we were on our way to start our new life.  WhooHoo!  We were finally free to live the life we had dreamed off, free to explore this amazing country we live in, free to be whatever we want to be.

Let our next chapter begin!

Don't cry because it is over, Smile because it happened.

Until you are in a situation you have never experienced, you just cannot comprehend how it really feels....  As this old idiom states:  Walk a mile in her shoes ….

Now I have seen and witnessed a few redundancies in my life but never been the person in the middle of it, until 15 March 19 when a folded white letter has handed to me just after 3 pm that fateful Friday afternoon.  That was when my full-time work ended ….. Boom!  Just like that.  I walked out of a job shortly thereafter never to return.

Yes, I experienced all the usual feelings of shock, disappointment, anger and loss of confidence in the days and weeks that followed.  But once I worked through all these raw emotions, there was a strange new exciting feeling in my life - the absolute feeling of release from stress and a wonderful new sensation of freedom.

I was starting to enjoy this new life of mine, which got us thinking why did I need to get another job ….. why could we not just start our retirement right here, right now ….. let's just pull our 2-year plan forward and do what we always wanted to.  Get out on the road and live our dream.

So I stopped looking for full-time work.  Instead, we concentrated on putting into action our dream and wish of so many years.

This was the perfect opportunity to use the situation to achieve our goal.  And our life on the road was within our grasp!

On the Road finally ..... Mission accomplished

It is good to look back over time and see the road you have travelled to get where you presently find yourself.

Roughly 35 years ago we had a dream to spend our retirement travelling.  So this was our dream back then.  Then over the years, we started wishing it, wishing we could just stop work and get travelling.  Now that time has ticked on by and here we are …. 35 years have passed us by - our dream, our wish could now be actioned.  And so here we are DOING IT.  We are finally on the road in our 9 metre "mobile home", living our dream.... We are full time living on the road.

The last 4 months have certainly been roller coaster months - and a catalyst to get us to be where we are now.  In January this year we had no idea just how close we were to achieve our dream, but then certain things happened in this time that put us right where we wanted to be.

In February we went on an amazing trip around the South Island that just ignited our love for travel.  Then in March I suddenly lost my job and with that job, my desire to keep on working full time.  In April we tested the housing market by putting up our house for sale and were completely side-blinded with a suddenly rushed sale of our home to the first buyer through the door.  By mid-April we knew that it was happening - we out of the rat-race, out of the working rut, retired or semi-retired as it turns out and we could grasp our long-time dream and get to live.

By 6 May, we were on the road in our 9 metre Rockwood travel trailer or caravan as they are also known to many.   We are finally living our dream.  Mission accomplished!