Freedom!

The first - and hardest - step is both making the decision to go and then actually doing something about it. We ticked that one off before starting this blog.

Now we've completed the next step that really feels like making us free - we've got rid of most of our worldly possessions, getting us down to a backpack each. Not quite as dramatic as setting a match to them, but we packed them up in a truck and transported them up to Nelson and into a small container. Quite tiring with two 6-hour trips on the weekend as one way required a lot of concentration not to bounce the cargo too much, the other way involved bouncing us continually as that is what empty trucks do!

And now we're tying up the loose ends, otherwise known as completing the paperwork. File that tax return; change all those addresses; set everything up to run with minimal intervention from us.

Some tips:

• When packing the truck we made sure to put the items that we might need checked some time in the future (like paperwork) in first so that they would come out last and end up at the front of the container, by the door.
• When packing into a watertight container you have to make sure everything is bone dry, otherwise it will go mouldy. Luckily, since it was raining, we could back our truck right up to our garage and put a tarpaulin over the gap between the two. We had packed silica sachets in many of the boxes and we also put some "damp-rid" in the container to soak up any moisture in the air.
• Not all storage facilities will be covered by your insurance company. Our one has a list of their "approved" facilities and, luckily, ours was on it. Pays to check first though!
• Insurance may cover your truck when shifting between houses, but it didn't cover our trip into a storage facility.

Having a break at Lewis Pass