Here we are, one weekend left before our New Zealand adventure draws to a close. I can't even say 'where has the time gone' cuz I know exactly where it's gone - into the best adventure we could have chosen for ourselves. We have thousands of pictures and memories and stories. New Zealand will never be far from our hearts or thoughts.
So, you can imagine that this past 3 weeks has been all about readying ourselves for the move home. Every week we have sold various items from our house till all we are left with are the beds and our secondhand living room/dining room stuff. The beds will be sold by Sunday and the Salvation Army are coming to pick up the unsellable stuff on Tuesday. We officially move out to stay in a friend's flat on Sunday. It's a long week this coming weekend (Queen's birthday) so we have 3 days to stuff every suitcase to the max and clean up the house for the next tennents.
I was dead set on only dragging home 10 suitcases, having come with 12. But this past weekend we cracked the seal on the 11th suitcase, despite all my best purging attempts. Understand that I'm up against the sentmental black hole that is Don. This is a man who has collapsed down the case that his favourity NZ beer comes in to transport it back home. Did I ever really have a chance??
Don and Chris have been taking every opportunity to hit the ocean to reel in some big fishies. I wish the weather would turn foul and pour down rain on us - it would make it easier to pull up stakes. But no, the weekends have been bright and relatively calm, decent fishing weather. Last weekend the 2 of them went out and came in with 17 snappers - fish that are about 30 cm long. And of course this weekend Don hit gold, catching a King fish. Chris was so determined that Don should catch one before he left the island and their determination allowed them to hunt down one of the crafty little devils. This fish was about a metre long and left Don black and blue around his rib cage where the end of the fishing rod was dug in as he tried to fight it to the surface. Anyways, I have seen and eaten enough fish to last me a good long time. If it's not salmon, please don't try to feed it to me. 
I've been trying to make our last few days here special for the boys as well. Connor for certain is very conflicted about leaving. On his calendar, on the day we are due to fly out, he has written 'boo/yay'. That pretty much sums it up for all of us actually. They had a bowling party with a couple of friends on Sunday. They only do 10 pin bowling here so it was pretty funny watching the kids lobe the ball down the alley. It really did look, at times like they were going to follow it down. On Friday the boys each took a specially designed cake to class to celebrate their last day at school. I took them to a cake shop and had them design the cake they wanted to take. Aidan's was a relatively painless exercise. Connor took 2 hours and had a few creative differences with me (the person paying for said cake) but we eventually came to a comprimise. I think the results look awesome eh?
Once we are home, back in Canada, we will be staying with willing(ish) friends and family for about 6 weeks until our new house is in our hands and has been renovated (read: new flooring and paint). So those family members who are hosting us and said they have missed us will certainly have a chance to make up for our 18 month absence! We plan on moving into the house during the August long weekend and we have a month to get settled until the boys start school. I'll be starting my job on June 29th, so the boys will all be hanging around without me most of the time. Lord knows what trouble they'll get up to. 
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