After 6 years of travelling, 2 in our current truck ‘we have finally stopped. It was getting time and now that the kids are older and space is once again becoming an issue it was decided that we needed to settle somewhere so our girls could grow up and expand beyond what we could offer them travelling. I will miss some of it. The beaches, new places and travelling with friends. But we had to start a new chapter in our lives and after the realisation that we, none of us are here for ever ‘holding on to something for nostalgic reasons is not a good enough reason to stop living life or staying in the same situation. Just as it was not a good reason to stay in the situation we were in when we were living in Whangarei and had to move we now had to make the decision to create a land based home once again but in a completely new part of the country. We new no one here and still know very few people, though it’s only been about a month. having our first snow day as a family, with friends staying was an epic experience for everyone and the morning i awoke to a snow covered landscape it was like God was saying happy birthday.
It was a special day watching the kids play together and taking photo’s of everything. It’s almost 2 am as i write this with a projected outside temperature of -9 degrees. i have the fire going of coarse and am glad i put one in the truck 2 years ago. It’s hard to believe that it was only 2 years that we built this home on wheels and it has served us so well and certainly challenged us at times getting used to a bigger vehicle. Now as i contemplate the next step i have probably the same apprehension i had when we first started the journey and travelling. There are the common fear factors the surround financing as normal but also the added issue of basically moving into a barn that has no front on it and a sub floor that was used to store seed at some time. after sweeping it clean it still looks like it’s going to be rough living and as usual the budget for turning this into some sort of accommodation is absolutely nothing, again. So it only has two closed in sides and the front opens to the world so i have a lot to do. We drove to Hokitika yesterday which was about a 5 hour trip to pick up a fire place that some friends donated for the build and apart from some nails and a few screws we have nothing more.
I’m reluctant to walk away from a comfortable house truck at the moment and it will take more than a fire place to lure me out of it. We put in a loan application with the savings pool for $5,000 to see if we can get a loan to start work on the barn. it wasn’t what i wanted to do as i wanted to make this work without borrowing but we had to borrow to buy the place anyway so no point worrying about it now. Needs must. All the creature comforts that the truck has are going to be missed. Still what we will keep from it are the memories our kids will have from the experience and the bond as a family that i had severely missed growing up. The kids actually wanted to attend a state school which surprised me but i guess in themselves they new that it was time and i can feel how they move about the truck with less and less space between us as we all push past each other and the arguments are a little more heated and sometimes feelings of rejection as one or another feels that the closeness they have had is slowly disappearing.
So hard being a child growing up in a world that demands more and more change. They scrabble for familiar securities as we transition to this new life and fixed abode and i have to remember that life needs to move a little more slowly with kids than with grown ups. Serena has advanced in leaps and bounds with her painting work while we have travelled and now regularly gets requests from other countries to do book cover art as well as manege her growing Bonsai business. With my health being what it is i sometimes struggle to keep up with her and make the shelters that she needs for them. Some days are better than others though and we get through.
It brakes my heart when my kids get upset about loosing me and i try to be positive about it for their sake. i will miss them too and yet have no idea what awaits me on the other side, only a faith that i will still be an entity of some kind and that I will still have the ability to miss something i know longer possess or am a part of. i hope for heaven and assure my kids their beloved pet has found a home their but sometimes i struggle with it as anyone would without being able to take a peek. It certainly makes more sense than the futile purpose of living if everything is born only to die. Well didn’t expect to be going down that rabbit hole of thought this morning. Keep looking forward i think as though you live forever. perhaps we do and i believe I’ve put my soul in the right hands so i shall continue in faith and assurance that one day we will meet again in a new country under a swift sunrise and a glorious day.
If you think you might be interested in buying the house truck you can contact me at family@fivetogether.nz