Ka kite for now Maraetai

The last few days back in Maraetai were going to be busy but it is always so important for me to squeeze every last bit of time with the girls and activity out of these visits. We make another lunchtime visit to the awesome Ajisen Ramen in Botany, spent as much time at the beach as we could and hit all the local playgrounds despite the weather starting to get a bit dodgy by the end of the visit.

The undisputed highlight of this last few days at home was Frankie’s 4th birthday princess party which was at her daycare in Beachlands. Everybody got dressed up the nines for the royal occasion and we had an absolute blast. Taffy the fairy ran the show perfectly as always and all the kids had a brilliant time. It was so nice seeing Frankie with all her own friends at the party. We were always a bit worried about all Frankie’s friends being Scarlett’s friends and all their little brothers and sisters, but having her at Seema’s has meant she has a great little group of mates, who all came along to the party.

I also managed to squeeze in a catch up and a few low key drinks with some ex Stride colleagues in the city which was great – so awesome to see everyone especially on a school night – thanks to Geoff, Josh, Lu, Nicole, Fabio, Tim and Correen for making the effort.

My final day in Maraetai was a heavy one, we were in the process of getting work done to the house and getting it ready for sale, which I was fine with but it was a really weird feeling knowing that you once you leave the place that is your home, you wont ever be going back there and that it will soon become someone else’s home. This was our first home so we have never sold and moved on before.

The hardest was yet to come though as I put Bella into the car and headed down to the beach for what I knew was going to be the final time I got to walk her. We went down to Waiomanu beach, one around from the main beach at Maraetai and headed off on Bella’s favourite walk one last time – we stopped at all the usual spots, she checked the bins for chicken bones, sniffed every tree and weed on every second one as we ambled our way round to Magazine Bay and back. We certainly didn’t set any land speed records that morning but that didn’t matter at all. I spent the whole time remembering all the great times we had had with Bella and reminding myself that trying to relocate her to Ireland wasn’t going to be fair on her and that the incredibly hard decision we had made was the right one. Joan would get a few more precious weeks with Bella but this was it for me and it hit me hard. We got back to the car, got Bella back in and I just broke down and bawled for what felt like an hour. We had done this walk and journey hundreds of times over the last 10 years plus but this was it, the last one. I managed to compose myself and we headed home and I got packed up and ready to head to the airport again for another marathon journey back to site.

This was an amazing trip home and I loved every second of it, but this one hit different – things were about to change significantly all round, and while the thought of the changes was daunting it was also really exciting – the next chapter of our family life was about to start and we were ready for it.Read more