It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and write a long blog post. The last few weeks and months have just flown by in a flurry of organising a million different things.
It started with closing down Turquoise Port Japan, selling all the stock, getting our personal belongings packed up and shipped to Auckland, New Zealand. On top of that came the farewells – fun and heartbreaking at the same time and the quiet goodbyes to the city and country I came to love during our 5.5 years in Tokyo. And all of it in the space of just over 3 weeks.
Things didn’t slow down when we arrived in Auckland. Having lived here before and Mr M being a New Zealander meant we already have a network of friends and family. So following in the footsteps of all of the ‘goodbyes’ in Japan came the ‘helloes’ in New Zealand.
The initial plan was to move back into our house which we bought more than 10 years ago before moving to Bangkok. Coincidentally around the same time as Mr M was approached with a job opportunity in NZ, our tenants handed it their notice. Coincidence? Was it meant to be? Did the universe make plans for us? Who knows…
Well – it didn’t turn out that way and we decided to sell the house. I’ll write another blog post to explain why we made that decision. Quite a few of my Instagram / Facebook friends and followers have asked that very question 😅
The house need a very large dose of TLC. It was rented out for almost 10 years to families with kids and dogs and it looked tired and dated. I took on that project (more about that in a later blog post) and turned the place around in just 8 weeks. 24/7 neck deep in dust & paint, finding & dealing with tradies, organising lawyers and real estate agents.
At the same time we found another fabulous house to buy just down the road. That meant more stuff to organise – finance, building inspections, lawyer.
Meanwhile we moved from one very small apartment where we stayed for a month to another small apartment for yet another month. Fully furnished places are hard to come by in Auckland. We needed one of those given that all our worldly belongings were packed into a shipping container when we left Tokyo.
After those 2 first months we moved into our new and very empty house. We’ve been glamping in the house for more than 3 weeks with an airbed, a small table and a couple of chairs and some borrowed kitchen items. Extreme minimal living! 😂
Luckily we just had word, that our shipment will be delivered on in a couple which is when I will disappear in mountains of boxes. I love unpacking and setting up – can’t wait to turn the house into a home and take you along on the journey!
Alex x
