The last few weeks have been a blur of preparations, packing and farewells.

Its fair to say we underestimated the task at hand when we decided to lift and shift our lives for the year. We were slightly flippant… ‘we’ve done it before, we know what’s to come!’.

Who would have thought that preparing the family and a dog for a fairly packed, 4 season trip would be anything other than a breeze?

Throw in closing out work, numerous (wonderful) going away parties/dinners/play dates and drinks, lots of last minute health check ups (panicked, left to the last minute vaccinations (as our itinerary moved), eye tests, dentists etc) and quality time with the cousins, brothers and parents and we’ve had a busy couple of weeks.

Oh, and then there’s the ‘we’re not really moving out so it will be fine’ packing (said now, with the full knowledge that everything in the house has been packed – or at least touched and moved – in the last 72 hours)!

Its been harder unplugging from our lives here than we would have guessed. We’ll miss our family, friends, our community, our jobs and our schools. We are not running from anything, rather towards a new experience. The goodbyes have been harder than expected and a more than few tears shed.

So… we are now sitting in a friends house (thanks Jess and Steve!) at T-7 hours from when the cab will come. The kids are asleep. 160 kgs of our lives are packed, the rest packed up and stored. Goodbyes have been said. Bonnie is at another friends house (thanks Dave and Emma!) staring out the window waiting for us to return (he will join us in 6 weeks). We are on the couch and still talking to each other (its been touch and go all week). We are excited, nervous, happy and squealish (between squeamish and squealy with excitement).

We are ready.

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