Month: July 2010

It’s Official

We are homeless! Yesterday we received word from our solicitor that settlement was complete and the funds were in our account.
The key-handing-over ceremony will take place on 2 August when James and James arrive in the country. The bottle of Moet is chilling, the glasses are polished and sparkling, and we are ready.

Today has been spent organising banks, funds and accounts and generally getting ready for our next big adventure. But first we have to get through a Garage Sale in the morning which will hopefully rid us of a small amount of clutter.

We can then finalise the packing and sort into three piles;
a) storage
b) storage for the motorhome and
c) packing for 6 months of travel.
The final pack will take place this week with the removal men in on Thursday and Friday.

We can be contacted via;

Roy              rkvannini@gmail.com      cellphone 027 642 9963

Bernice      vanninib@gmail.com        Cellphone 021 339 885

In the beginning

It all began a few months ago with the planning on where and what to do next. We knew we wanted to travel to the UK and Europe first and we also want to purchase a reasonable sized motorhome to live in once we return to NZ as we intend to spend some time exploring the country before deciding on where we would really like to settle.

As we are going to be purchasing a large motorhome (10m) we both needed to get our Heavy Traffic Drivers Licence. To do this you have two choices
1. Sit your learners licence and then wait 6 months to sit your full licence or
2. Attend a two day course.
It was a relatively easy decision to make, therefore we took the plunge, paid the $750 each and did the two day course. The course consists of passing the learner licence, attaining three Unit Standards, learning the Class 2 and General Road Code, filling out workbooks, driving assessments and the final driving test. Of course, we just happened to be sitting the tests on the two days that the heaviest rainfall and flooding took place in and around Oamaru! Needless to say we both passed, but just ask Roy which one of us attained 100%!

We both needed to renew our passports, with photos done, the forms filled out off they went. In just over two weeks we both have a shiny new passports, a NZ passport for Roy and a UK one for me. I also had to get my Returning Residents Visa transferred to my new passport which was promptly done.

As time creeps on, we have made the big decision not to buy the motorhome until our return to New Zealand next year. It did not make sense to have it parked up somewhere whilst we were tripping around Europe.

Since we are hiring a motorhome in Europe, it turns out that Italy is the only country in Europe that does not recognize the NZ Drivers Licence, an International Drivers Licence is required ……we all know the reputation of the Italian Drivers! The Oamaru AA must be sick of seeing us; I think we have been in there four or five times in the last month getting licences, having photos taken or sitting tests of one sort or another.

Booked!

It’s all booked, and paid for! And it’s rather exciting.

We leave New Zealand on 12 August, initially for Vancouver for a brief two night stopover before heading to London where Alex is hopefully organising our welcoming committee. We shall spend a little time in England before joining a Baltic Cruise for 12 days – Dover, Copenhagen, Berlin (Warnemuende), Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm (Nynashamn), Dover – which should give us a nice overview of that region, we are particualrly looking forward to spending two days in St Petersburg.
We will then head to France and into the Burgundy region to meet up with friends Roger & Ruth on their canal boat. We are really looking forward to relaxing and meandering along the Nivernais canal system.
Frankfurt is the next point of call, we have rented a motorhome from the 1st October. For the next 10 weeks we intend to explore the delights of Europe; scenery, food, culture and history, before heading back to the UK.
Then it is up to Alex & Fran to tell us where we will be spending Christmas. No pressure girls, but a white Christmas would be good! We will spend the rest of our time travelling around the UK (incl Scotland and Ireland) before heading back to NZ at the end of January via Hong Kong.

Bring it on!

Oamaru to…..?

The new adventure begins. We have SOLD!

After what seems like a painstakingly long process the end is in sight. We have sold Pen-y-bryn to James Glucksman and James Boussy, Americans who currently reside in Beijing. They arrive in Oamaru on 2 August thus we will be in Oamaru to complete the handover for a few days after that.

We are looking forward to spending the next couple of years travelling, initially to the UK & Europe before spending time exploring New Zealand in a large motorhome.