Since we made our hurried trip from Wellington to the comfort and safety of my parents home in Te Puke it feels like the time has just flown by. Those first weeks in complete lock down were strange and uncharted territory for everyone no matter your life circumstances. The progression out of lock down had an extra element of excitement for us. When we got to level two and could break our bubble we got to reconnect with people we hadn’t seen in over two years. Friends and family that we had missed with all our hearts. I have been pleasantly surprised over the course of our travels how well our little family of three has supported and sustained each other without all those extra connections you make around you, without the community you build and often rely on. But it has been a most welcome thing to share real life moments with that community we left behind, to share conversations, hugs and a whole lot of love.

We’ve ended up being based in this area a whole lot longer than we ever imagined. A need for a few repairs and a whole lot of very busy repairers who we’ve had to wait patiently to have time for our big old bus has meant that even once we were free to move around the country again we have had to stay on a little longer. After the freedom and sometimes spontaniety with which we have lived the last two years it has been hard being somewhat stuck and having so much of what’s happened this year being largely out of our control. Not that things have always gone to plan while we’ve been travelling. We’ve made lots of little adjustments to plans and done things differently than we imagined many times. This time with a global pandemic, a country in complete lockdown and then what has seemed like a never ending string of things conspiring to keep us immobile it has definetly been the biggest hurdle yet.

One of my favourite childrens books is Dr Seuss ‘Oh the places you will go’. The line ‘You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes you can steer yourself any direction you choose’ speaks straight to my soul! But there’s a page in that book about being stuck in the waiting place, full of people just waiting for everyday things to happen that really doesn’t speak to any part of me. For a large portion of this year that’s what life for us has felt like. Stuck in a holding pattern, waiting for the life we really wanted to be available again. I’m hopeful and positive though that Dr Suess is right and somehow we will escape all that waiting and staying, we’ll find the bright places where boom bands are playing.