All Change

Aug 15

What a difference a few weeks make!  We found a couple of nice NZ houses for sale near Kerikeri (north of Auckland) so Angie got on a plane to NZ at the end of July. Both houses of course sold literally as she got off the plane. Given the way she feels about NZ there was no question of coming back without a house, so after 10 days she bought a nicer house with 5 acres. Peter thinks she only came back because she was missing Kes. Peter sees himself sitting on the patio supervising Angie using the ride on mower (but it will have to be in British Racing Green sans exhaust so she thinks it is a go-cart).

We will now join the Antipodean club who live in NZ but spend the Winter months in France. Angie is still on a high, but was fairly knackered after the quick round trip. Peter has since been back to UK with a load of kit to go with the rest of our baggage to NZ (departing this week).  Angie delegates well along the lines of 'Peter make it happen' (Army officer training)!

On the cruising front we continued up the Sambre, strongly recommended to all, nice little towns, free moorings and very few cruisers this season anyway. We tucked into Thuin for a week and then into Lobbes for three weeks while Angie was away. That gave Peter a chance to get a new cold water supply pump delivered as the old one was leaking. He also had a ring side seat of the locals practising water jousting - all done with a rope system unlike the South where they use outboard propulsion.

Lobbes

Then it was into Jeumont just inside France to get a new gas bottle and do a load of shopping (French supermarkets much better than Belgian ones).  Just so we didn't allow any weeds to grow, we sprinted down to the Midi to view a 11.3m Valkvets which we had been offered in part exchange. A mistake as the 'buyers' thought an offer €20k under our stated bottom price plus a 600 km delivery run was doing us a favour!

Enough for this year. We will now do a very leisurely trek up the Blaton/Ath to Gent, then Brugge. Our flights to NZ are booked for October - can't wait.

So anyone who wants Kotare needs to turn up with wads of cash next Apr - no more part trade ins of flats, boats or other chattels , Very low offers, - forget it :)