Motorhomes Caravans & Destinations
JACKIE’S JOURNEY
A change is in the air for Jackie and Gareth
Every time I hear a tūī it never fails to make me smile. Their cheerful chatter brings back happy memories of the many places where we’ve had the pleasure of their company. Clinging to flax at the top of Mount Victoria, looking out over Wellington city. Serenading us from kōwhai trees through the Kapiti Coast. On particular Napier evenings, as we took in the ocean view and watched them swoop with noisy wings to sip sugar water from the bright orange feeder in the willow tree.
On 10 November 2016, when I left my house, with its enormous vegetable garden, fruit trees and bird table, not being able to feed the birds any more was one of the things that saddened me the most. Funny the things you worry about, isn’t it? There I was, about to hit the road in a tiny Nissan Elgrand, having sold almost everything I owned, pretty much without any kind of plan for the future – and I was stressing about sparrows. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. From Cape Rēinga to Bluff, I have encountered and fed more birds over the past four-and-a-half years than I ever dreamed possible.
A SUDDEN HALT – AND A CHANGE OF DIRECTION
The summer of 2020, I had never been more content. Marlborough, Canterbury and Wellington regions were a joy and there were more areas of the country we had still to explore fully, such as the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay. I never wanted to stop travelling and never planned to. Until Covid hit and like many people, for us it changed everything. Whereas others were in the unfortunate and worrying position of being unable to work, we had always worked from wherever we were parked, and were totally accustomed to and comfortable in each other’s company 24/7. We threw ourselves into our work as part of a global non-profit organisation. Our isolation enabled us to focus and think outside the square, and by the time lockdown was lifted, everything, including our purpose, had completely changed. Still in ‘heads down, bums up’ mode, we relished the opportunity to keep renting our beautiful haven in Napier and tick Hawke’s Bay off our to-do list.
As people were able to travel again, at least within New Zealand, our weeks in Napier became interspersed with fulfilling our pre-lockdown house and pet-sitting commitments all over the country. Before, we had always tailored our house-sits to our travel plans. Now that we were stationary, this was proving not only hugely expensive, driving hundreds of kilometres to and from Napier every week or two, but also extremely stressful. Our office and amount of equipment had grown so much, we could no longer sleep in our van, so we often had to stay in Airbnbs along the way.
We were always chasing our tails, packing in, packing out and cleaning other people’s houses when we needed to be working. So much for a simpler life! Something had to give – and then it did. My youngest son suddenly developed some very worrying health problems. We were at an Airbnb on the Kapiti Coast, about to start a 10-day house and dog-sit in Wellington – and he was in the Coromandel. I felt so far away and helpless – and completely and utterly stuck. My 78-year-old mum in the Waikato was also not in the best of health and as her only child, I was all she had. We needed to be closer to them both, for as long as they needed us.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST – AND A NEW HOME
The problem was, how and where? Before Napier I had never rented anywhere in my life. As we joined the waiting lists for rentals, we couldn’t believe the prices. Even the most basic and run-down units were charging more per week than my mortgage payments on our beautiful Whangamatā three-bedroom home four years earlier! I remembered a friend, Tara, who lived on the Hibiscus Coast, saying she had acquaintances in the area who sometimes had vacant studio rentals, so I dropped her a line and asked if she knew of anything. Unfortunately she didn’t – but just two days later she messaged me again. She and her husband actually had a furnished studio unit beneath their large home, which was currently empty. Before, they had only rented it out to single people, as they hadn’t thought it big enough for two – but as we needed somewhere and were well used to living super tiny, perhaps it might just work? She was right – in our eyes it was huge! And absolutely perfect. Even more wonderful however, was that Tara was one of my oldest and dearest friends. We grew up in the same tiny village in the UK, and went to primary school together. I had known
“As we walked along the beach at Arkles Bay, our new home, we just knew we had made the right choice. The coast is so beautiful and we still have much to explore.”
my new landlady for more than 40 years! I couldn’t think of anyone I would rather share a space with than Tara and her lovely family.
We moved in on 24 October 2020 and were excited, but nervous. We had never spent any time on the Hibiscus Coast before, and had no idea what to expect. But as we walked along the beach at Arkles Bay, our new home, we just knew we had made the right choice. The coast is so beautiful and we still have much to explore. Months on, everyone is happy, my son is doing well and my mum loves having us visit her often, without having to bring our whole house with us and a week’s worth of washing! Even though we now live a conventional life, it’s apparent to us we are still very different from ‘normal’ people. Life on the road has changed us, I think, forever. I look forward to sharing how in the next issue – the last in Jackie’s Journey.