My Home Town

I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks of how to bring our travel blog to a conclusion. I did not want to just stop, or disappear. We have really enjoyed posting photos and sharing our experiences with those who have been interested. I have been surprised at how much I have enjoyed writing about our adventures. Writing a blog became a really enjoyable and significant part of our travel, something that I looked forward to doing. When we took photos I would often ask myself 'how would this look on our blog?' I came to the conclusion what better way to finish than with a post of 'my home town' and here it is.

We have been home nearly three weeks. Time has gone by so fast. There have been days when we have been overwhelmed with unpacking, cleaning, unpacking, cleaning. Moving mess from one part of our house to the other. We miss our travel ... every day had something different and interesting to see or do. Life back @ 29a has been a lot of the same. Traveling got easier and easier! There are no big life questions that need to be considered or answered. There are no bills that need to be paid. There are no pressing or urgent demands. Life was simple ... what shall we do today, where will we eat, what is our budget and can I wear this outfit again. Engaging with life again has been challenging, stressful and a little frightening at times. We want to hold on to the sense of adventure and openness to whatever comes next. That has been challenging when old patterns of thought start to creep into our consciousness.

We are wading through it all. We have organised cell phones. Bought a car ... which we have to pick up from Whangarei. Pete has his Lotus back. I have gone grocery shopping ... I found that scary and stressful at the same time. We have put up our bed which is so nice to be sleeping in again and started catching up on some lost viewing time. We have loved catching up friends, family and neighbors and have been very moved by how pleased people have been to see us. We have had MacGregor Matthews to stay over. We took him to the movies and I have started reading him King Arthur, I loved every minute with him. It has not taken me long to get back into the habit of hot showers. I have had hot chocolates from all my favourite spots and a cheese roll from the cheese mongers.

Here are our first impressions of returning home ...

We have not felt cold in a very long time, maybe the odd day or evening but not what I would call winter. I love wood burners! There is nothing like a fire on a cold, wet, miserable day. We have stacked a lot of wood over the years ... there have been many wood stacking family activities which always seemed to end in fights over who is not stacking enough, it is not fair and how come we are not being paid for this!

Packing and unpacking look exactly the same to me ... messy and chaotic. I am sure there are better and more organised ways of doing this. 

Loving yoghurt again ... Collective is one of my favourtie brands along with Piako and Bliss. Yum, Yum, Yum!

lucy's birthing kit. lucy and Josh are planning to have a home birth at our house, a little girl. In lucy's kit there are towels, hand towels, birthing mats that lucy made, baby's layette, a couple of snuggly blankets, hair ties and bobby pins. We are ready for her to arrive whenever she is ready.

The birthing pool. Pete's and my job is to keep this pool full with warm water. A rather daunting task. We feel very honoured to be involved in such a life changing experience for lucy and Josh.

I have had a lot of fun dressing up our house with some of the things we bought on our travels. We bought this wall hanging in Luang Prabang ... it was woven by a master weaver. A master weaver designs their own patterns and then weaves them. This design came second place in some competition and took months to weave. We loved it. I know I have said this before but I fell in love with the textiles that we saw on our travels. I wish I had bought so much more.

These cards are hand made, the paper and the painting. We loved them and they look great on our wall. Another purchase from Luang Prabang.

Our famous rug we bought in Turkey ... looks beautiful on our bedroom floor. 

A block printed sheet from India ... I use it as a duvet cover. I love looking at it ... I love the colours. I love the memories. I bought a few of these. 

 I will always remember the colours of India ... who would have thought that a thistle could look so beautiful.

While we were away our family home @ 371 River Road was demolished. This is how 371 now looks ... the beech tree along the right hand side Rob planted. He came back with a tiny shrub from a trip to the West Coast and now it is a protected tree. I notice waves of grief and sadness roll over me at times as I travel round the city. I think it will take many years for ChCh to recover, physically and emotionally. 

A sign of change ... autumn colours are so beautiful here in ChCh and when the light catches the trees with their turning leaves they can look spectacular. I love the depth of colour autumn brings.

A lot of new is happening in Christchurch with the ongoing rebuild. Some of the buildings are beautiful and some are bland. I like this one. 

I am undecided on this one ... lots of glass seems to be a theme in the rebuild. I love the contrast of this building and the pop-up coffee caravan. There were a lot of these pop-up cafes in Christchurch before we left.

The old Christchurch... hanging on. Looks like it might stay. I hope so. 

I came across this ANZAC memorial while driving round ChCh. This means so much more to us after our trip to Gallipoli. Gone but not forgotten, a lot like Christchurch ... a lot has gone. I had so much fun driving round ChCh taking photos. The day was beautiful. I felt like I was reconnecting with my home town again and it felt so peaceful.

We could not believe how quiet Christchurch was when we arrived. We knew that it would be a lot more quiet than some of the cities we have visited, but the roads seemed so dead to us. This is Durham Street which is one of the main one-way streets through Christchurch. I was shocked by how empty it was! 

Some things are still the same ... thank goodness! Punting on the Avon.

 Christchurch Cathedral holds so much history for me. I have a photo of my parents and Grandmother taken in front of the Cathedral and I have had my photo taken in front of it. It was a Friday night tradition to have your photo taken outside the Cathedral. I spent a lot of my youth climbing up the steps of the Cathedral bell tower which has gone. There was even the odd suicide from the tower. We used to drive round the Square and always drive past the Cathedral ... my hooligan days. At one point this was the tallest building in the city but as you can see over time it has been dwarfed. I do hope this building is not forgotten.

I loved seeing the City Tram up and running.

There was and still is a lot of street art that has popped up around the city ... this is one of the originals. 

My first movie back in ChCh ... Cheryl and I went to see it at Alice's Cinema. A delightful French movie. 

I am not sure where to from here. We have a baby arriving any day and we are very excited to meet her ... she will keep us busy for a while. We have people coming to stay that we met on our travels and we are looking forward to seeing them. We have to start earning again ... for our next trip. We are scared and excited about creating a new kind of life here in ChCh ... our home town.