We’re visiting my folks in the North Island right now and looking at properties along with enjoying the area. Along with the serenity of home cooking (I love my mother’s food!!!) the spring weather has very much hit and NZ is putting on a show for us. There’s a lot to think about though, some of which is a real culture shock. I’ve never heard about the need to get a house Meth tested before (if drug users have been “cooking” inside it the house can become unsafe) for instance – or needing to check if the land is under a title that means it could be re-posessed by the local Iwi. It is stunning though and Mr Incredible is starting to like the area as much as I do. Coming from Sydney there’s a lot of opportunities and part of the journey is figuring out WHAT we want to do and how we invest.

We’ve also had bad news about the school we’d planned for Adventure Girl – turns out they’re not opening up the class which would give her entry to the school so she can’t get entry until she’s in Year 2. This means we need to look for a local public school for her Year 1 and then transfer her. It’s a little bit of a setback but not one that phases us too much – it’s still a school that we love so we’ll just bide our time and save our $$!

Mr Incredible is taking the kids up to the snow today (I have a healing fractured back that I don’t want to re-injur so sadly I’m playing it safe) and I’m visiting the local auction house to see what we can buy instead of ship for decent prices and looking at 5 other rural properties. We’re starting to get a good feel on where we are and my lingering thought is… I don’t want to fly home! it’s not only that I feel home here, it’s also that I know exactly how much work we’ve got to do once we get home. That was entirely the point of visiting here though – inspiration to get through the next few months and motivation to do all we need to move back.