Spatula Forum

Are we done moving yet?

...Finally, for the first time in nearly three years, all our "stuff" is in one place again. While I was in California last month one of my tasks was to deal with the 40 or so boxes of assorted stuff (er, mostly books and comics, I admit) that had been sitting in my parents' garage since 2006. Shipping a big ol' container all the way to New Zealand is really expensive and it wasn't nearly enough to fill one anyway, but fortunately we found a very good company specializing in small loads that allowed us to ship a single pallet.

It all went very smoothly and actually came in under budget. The 41 boxes and one trunk that I dropped off in Sacramento, California just under a month ago, I picked up none the worse for wear at a freight warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand today. The boxes seemed to enjoy their ocean journey, and finally, finally, we feel like we're "settled" a bit -- we started shipping stuff to New Zealand and getting rid of our possessions way back in early 2006, and now is the first time "everything" is together again. It took a while, but we are officially moved to New Zealand in full!

I'm trying to be a bit less materialistic in my old age, but it is nice to have all my old familiar books and papers and so forth in one place again, and not go hunting for a particular thing and realize, "Oh yeah, that's in California." Stuff gives us a bit of security, after all.

I'm just not thinking about how we'll do it if we ever do move back to America sometime down the road... it'll be years away if that happens, anyhow. Excuse me, I've got stuff to unpack!