Home. Where a Dollar is a Dollar and You Can Read the Street Names.

Written 23 July 2013

It was so exciting to come home. Randomly in the plane my watch stopped working! It was like it knew time was up for our trip! We had a welcoming comity waiting for us at the airport. Gemma was there which was a lovely surprise and so were Leanne, Malcolm and Rachael. It was so good to see everyone again. We took ages to come through as we had declared things and so had to have our bags examined etc. It was all a bit surreal seeing everyone when we came through the doors really. It felt like we were away for so long and that our trip would never end.

We were also excited to get home and see the animals. The dog were excited to see us. Jessy and Sasha got to have lots of cuddles with Steve.

Then we went down to our old house to see Bethell. We were very happy to see her again too. I think she was a bit cross with us at first but then she remembered that she loves us anyway.

And gave us lots of smooches.

We had a yummy treat of crayfish waiting for us. MORE yummy food!!!

And I was super excited to see the christmas tree.

It was nice to be able to get a few things from our storage room the next day.

Malcolm and Leanne kindly let us stay with them for a while until we got ourselves sorted. It was so good to be back with family again and in a lovely clean home. Thank you so much again for having us Leanne and Malcolm. We REALLY appreciate it!

We went to catch up with the rest of my family.

Here I am with all my brothers and sisters (Gemma, Sophie, Josh, Hannah and Levi).

And my step mum (Janelle) and nieces (Teeana and Rosia). 

We had a fun time catching up with everyone.

We went and visited Jack.

And had a Christmas dinner with the Clarks.

It was a busy week of catching up. 

There were many things about coming home that were strange. 

One was that every time Steve left the room for more than a minute I'd think "Where's Steve gone?" Because I was so used to being with him every moment or at least knowing exactly where he was. It was very strange and took rather a long time to get used to. 

It was also strange coming home to nearly our house. Because our old house (that Rachel moved into when we were gone) is just across the paddock from Leanne and Malcolm's it was odd being so close to home but it wasn't our home anymore. I often visited Bethell there however and took her for walks to the pond.

It was also strange but good to just have things cost what they cost without having to constantly convert the currency to New Zealand dollar. Buying things is easier when a dollar is a dollar. 

And you no longer need a map when you know the way! (Although I didn't have a car as I sold it prior to our trip but we had Steve's truck.)

It is awesome being able to drink the tap water and rinse your toothbrush in it!

We arrived home to the best New Zealand summer for years. So I'll tell you about the rest of our Endless Summer in the next post.