D-day is fast approaching, and things are getting a little scary now. Our flat is almost void of all furniture, and it is starting to hit us that in a couple of weeks we will be homeless, and living in a van... We are already unemployed, Rhona finished her work on Friday, and we have very little time left to organise everything.
So, what's the plan then? Well, We've got this week sorting things out in Hastings, then on Sunday we are going to spend a week doing a round circuit of the UK up to Aberdeen and back to say goodbye to parents and brothers, and to test the van out on home soil. We've then got a few more days in Hastings to iron out any creases before setting off for New Zealand on the 1st of May. We have 4 1/2 months to get to New Zealand before my pilots training course starts in September..that is assuming that I get on the course, it's not been confirmed yet, but will be on the 1st of July. Let me in Nelson Aviation College!!
Talking of the van, it's in the garage again getting all the belts changed, oh and transmission oil is leaking all over the rear wheel hub, and the wipers have stopped working...oooh it'l be fine!!! As far as the rest of it is going, well it's going rather well actually, we have a folding bed, a fridge, work top, gas hob, portaloo, big water tank, water filter system, storage, blacked out windows, curtains, roof rack, and an auxilliary power supply consisting of a couple of car batteries linked up to power our kettle and fridge and a few other things. Cool! All I need to do now is cut a hole in the roof (yikes!) to put the spinney roof vent in and we're away! Rhona's still picking letters off the side!
Thanks for all your comments, and as Mr Pickering helpfully pointed out, the lines on our map do infact not line up correctly in New Zealand, with the van going to one place, us another, then us in the van going between them. Thank you for that, and I'm glad we can now take the time to clarify the point that all things considered, WE ARE A BIT HAZY ABOUT OUR EXACT ROUTE AT THAT STAGE OF THE JOURNEY!! But I think you will find that if you look very closely there is a very thin green line suggesting that we swim north to meet the van... You Crazy!!
Chris, If we make it to Slovakia, we will be in touch! Can't believe we went up to Scotland the one week all the snow was melting! Hey, we had snow in Hastings last Sunday..amazing! I thought I would drive the van up a hill to really experience it, then quickly realised that the hill was quite a bit steeper than origionally anticipated when the van started slipping backwards down the hill again!! Oops, close one, we're planning on driving to New Zealand, and it was nearly all over in Hastings..lets be a bit more careful next time shall we!
To the Manc lot, any of you are welcome to visit whenever you like, we will probably be there for a good couple of years, maybe more depending on how it goes. I don't know really who's idea it was origionally to do this, we sort of egged each other on trying to prove that we were so much braver than the other, and ended up with this! Thanks for visiting Martin and Becky!
Other exciting news is that we have our Iranian visas stamped in our passports, WAHEY!!! Thanks to Zohreh at Magic Carpet Travel for sorting that out for us, as they are notoriously difficult to get hold of unless you happen to have a sister who is Iranian...nope, not that I know of. We need to make a trip up to London this week to get our Pakistan and India visas stamped in. So it's all starting to happen. Needless to say, we are extremely excited, and very reverant of the opportunity to partake in such an outing.
Until next time...over and out...
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