September 10, 2023
The last leg and life on the farm
We had a week long interlude in Rotorua and Hamilton with James' family to recover from our jetlag and catch up with family. The jetlag seemed a bit easier to overcome than February, and Tobias was way more confident with his Grandparents and cousins.
James' sister and her partner took us back to the airport, trailer in tow, on Sunday and we checked in with all the same things, plus a car seat, for the last flight down to Dunedin to meet my Dad and head to our new home.
We've been back over 3 months now. Enough time to settle in, get Tobias settled into kindy and get into a rhythm as a multigenerational household. Some things about staying put are good - keeping our toothbrushes in the same spot, a wardrobe, a good bed, and not having to be constantly aware of when we were going to be able to wash nappies. Time seems to pass differently. It surprised me when our toothpaste ran out this week. Last time we needed to buy toothpaste we biked a few hundred kilometers over several countries so it felt like we got a lot more bang for our buck.
Tobias is proving to be a real farm kid. He's happy to run around the big homestead we share with my parents on his own. He'll come and help me in the potting shed and likes to put his own plants in pots and water them so they "grow up, eat them, nom nom nom". He'll also happily sit with his Grandad Ken in the tractor for hours. He's been upgraded to a shotgun seat (well, a doo-little, but the same concept). We've been on a few rides but the weather has been pretty average and its a bit harder work for him. We hope to be able to ride him to kindy occasionally in the summer, but its a 32km round trip so it takes some time out of your work day (so does driving in our car!). I wonder how much of our adventure is stored away in his brain, and what the impact is on his personality. I think we often overestimate our importance in kids personalities, nevertheless when he does something really cool, or is feeling a bit nervous at kindy, I wonder how much biking across Europe for 6 months has contributed.
We've got some plans for bike trips in the future. New Zealand has really expanded its bike path network since we've been away so this summer we have a few multi-day trips in our region planned. We also have a huge number of gravel roads to interesting places around where we live so we'll make the most of those as soon as summer properly kicks in. But big, long, international trips are probably off the cards for the next wee while. We hosted our first warm showers guests a few weeks ago and have some more coming this week, so we can still stay in touch with people doing adventurous things.
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