The End of 20 Months on the Road!!

Hello everyone! 

My last posting was in the April-May school holidays as the autumn leaves were falling in the golden Hawkes Bay sun. The holidays gave me the chance to do some of the admin that I could barely get to during the term-time challenges on the road. 

The hardest thing about the whole adventure was not having an office!!! Rather than pining for a cosy home I fairly drooled at the thought of having an office again one day…with filing cabinets, wi-fi, phones, printers…everything in one place…oooohh!!! 

Anyway I gave such thoughts a short audience then threw them in the compost! :) Stay in the now, I reminded myself, and be eternally grateful!

So after ploughing through emails, lecture prep, more writing of articles and bookkeeping I returned to Taruna for 2 final days of lecturing with the full-time student teachers. This was followed by a short but very intense love affair with Taikura Steiner School giving not only the basic Roots and Wings lectures but also those on the 8-12 year-old, adolescence, and early childhood with the Parent Space parents. After all my years of connection with this school it was lovely to finally give something back.

Then it was back to the Kapiti coast to see several clients and be the key-note speaker for a Parenting Conference organised by Jill Duncan and her team (thank you so much for your stellar organisation), entitled ‘Simply Parenting’. It was very well attended with great workshops offered to support the parents. A truly joyful day!

 After the conference I slipped back into Wellington for a couple of weeks to see a few clients and catch up with family. 

Back in Welly on Lyall Bay Beach

I stayed with my dear cousin Libby at the very far end of the Eastbourne Rd. Winter was starting to make its presence felt and I had my first taste of the Eastbourne road being closed due to waves over the road…and not being able to get back till the tide had gone down. Little did I know there was more to come! 

Ah but not yet. First it was time to point Daffy north again and visit all the smaller towns that had missed out: the kindergarten communities of Palmerston North, Rotorua and Taupo. Time again to thank my fabulous hosts: Claire, James, Hector, Orion and Stirling in their gorgeous home built by James on the rural outskirts of Palmerston North; Margi, John, Kiara and Jonah sharing with me their piece of paradise on the eastern shores of Lake Rotorua; and Fenella, Tony, Lilja and Luca nestled into the shores of Lake Taupo…that amazing lake that was the largest eruption in the world in the last 5000 years, in 186 AD, and still steams at the edges! As usual, after giving lectures I gave mentoring sessions to families and saw these towns through their eyes. 

For those reading this from outside New Zealand (hello!) these 3 areas are in the heart of the North Island, surrounded by farmland, forestry farms, native bush, volcanoes, mountains, lakes and rivers and rich with Maori and classic Kiwi culture. The wonderful sulphur air from the bubbling mud in Rotorua represents for me the mystery and awe of these little islands in the giant Pacific Ocean, named Aotearoa by the Maori (the land of the long white cloud…which is what they first saw from their great canoes or wakas).

Taupo moods

Taupo moods 

Then…once more…back to Wellington to house-sit for my cousin and finish up admin and taxes. But what a time to return! There was a storm that was supposed to reach its full force by 10pm so I thought I could sneak in at 6pm…but the peak came early, and as I turned the campervan on to the Ngauranga Gorge it hit with such incredible force that I could barely keep the camper on the road and get her down the Gorge. I was so desperate to reach cousin Libby’s once again that I forced Daffy around the bays with the waves washing over the road and windows…my windscreen wiper broke with the force of the wind..but we made it to my great relief. 

Driving south into the storm 4pm

But the storm was not finished yet. The next day Libby had to fly to Bali (!) and I drove her in her car to the airport, once again with waves cascading into and over us…we were just about the last car out before the road was closed. This was the fierce storm that literally chewed up our coastline around Wellington, swallowing some dunes and big chunks of coastal pathways and roads and almost sinking the ferry.

Sea washing over the road

Storm that chewed up the coast

Bus Stop at Days Bay

Seal, log and beach washed on to the road

And as if that wasn’t enough there was another terrible storm on the day I left again 3 weeks later. I stopped at the campground at Seaview on my way out to try to empty my tanks..but the wind was so bad I could hardly stand and it broke the barrier arm at the gate and I couldn’t get in. I was so terrified of being there with the camper that I just jumped back in and drove north as fast as I could to get away from the southerly gale. It worked and I made it over the Rimutakas (wind wasn’t so bad there) and up to Masterton to my sister’s. Shattered!

On to Hawkes Bay for a lecture to the teacher inservice course students. Then to Tauranga again for a very intense non-stop 10 days of mentoring sessions (Tauranga is becoming a 2nd home!)..and here Daffy broke down right in town…on a Friday at 4pm as Murphy’s Law would have it…so we had to be unceremoniously put on a flatbed and dumped at a campground for the weekend, then dumped back at the mechanic’s on Monday when they could see her…without me, as I was due to be lecturing in the Coromandel by then! Thank goodness for my dear Tauranga hosts, Rebecca, Graham, Stella and George, as Graham just happened to be going to Coro just when I needed to go and they could provide me with accommodation up there and a car to use!!!)

Honestly, I could write a book about these adventures entitled ‘But Luckily…’ :) There has been a silver lining to every challenge without fail! 

So a fabulous few days lecturing in Coromandel Town and Whitianga, and visiting Kuaotunu, and having a lovely time with Ursula and Lutz….thank you again!

Driving Creek Railway Coromandel

View of Coro from Driving Creek

Coromandel

Then…would you believe it?….south again and back to Kapiti to spend a week working with the teachers at the kindergartens at Te Ra and giving 2 lectures there.

One of the big mistakes I made was not finding a way to control all the requests. Each community had only a few options of when my talks could be fitted into their timetables and I never succeeded in corralling them into a properly sequenced tour. In the end I got a bit overwhelmed and just gave up..so went up and down the country a few too many times. I consoled my nerves and petrol bill by telling myself it was a ‘working holiday’…and I have to say I enjoyed it all so much! 

My other big mistake has been not realising the meaning of the word ‘blog’!! It’s not supposed to be a periodic marathon like this!

In those last few weeks things were beginning to change within me. I was reaching my limit of having no office, of living in such a tiny space, of being always in guest mode..always moving, changing, adapting. Daffy needed a tune-up and I decided when I finally arrived back in Welly on August 20th that I would leave her and the dog there and do the final leg north by car. Julia Sherriff’s dear old Toyota that she gave me when she left to go to East Timor.

In August and September I burrowed into my cousin’s living room in Wellington and set to work, covering every surface with sticky notes and paper to prepare for the key-note speeches I was to give at the Australasian Early Childhood conference in Cambridge (NZ) on the last weekend of September. This was a very special time. It had been years since I had given myself up to some in-depth reading, studying and writing and I poured my heart and soul into it with passion. I had been preparing it in my mind all year as I drove around the country…often stopping to scrawl down a thought. It was so good to finally get it all into some sort of cohesive whole.

During my time in Wellington I saw more clients and gave 5 lectures at Raphael House school, the final one being on the impact of technology on childhood. I felt in this lecture and also in the keynote conference lectures that the whole of the 20 months on the road, the 3 years before that of running the Parenting Centre, indeed the Plum Parenting work of the last nearly 7 years, was coming to fruition. Dear parents,…all of your stories, your trials, your triumphs…all you have taught me through your courage and tears…how can I thank you for what it has brought to this body of knowledge that has become Plum Parenting. Thank you, thank you!!

And once again..as Murphy would have it…after a year of preparation for those 2 keynote speeches..I was unable to get to sleep the night before one of the talks…and was just drifting off at about 1.30am when the fire alarm was activated by an insect and the entire building had to be evacuated to the sound of the alarm and a loud recorded voice saying ‘evacuate the building by the nearest exit’…over and over till I thought it might replace my lecture in my brain!! Back to our beds by 2.30am…but I must’ve got only 3 poor hours of sleep…and the next morning there was only one way: to do the whole thing on pure adrenalin!!!…which I did. I think by the last moments of the last talk I was barely in my body, having devoted every ounce of energy to the content. Happy to say it was very well received..the audience were fantastic!…PHEW!…and I felt that not only my work but my whole life at that moment moved into a new dimension.

After the conference I attended another wonderful conference in Auckland entitled: Being in Reality. Then had 3 days of looking after my host’s chickens…and breathing out at last. It was almost time for the tour to end. I had decided by now that I was not going to spend the 4th term in the South Island as was planned.…that it was time to stop and find roots again. It was hard to say no to them. 

When word got out that I would be passing by on my way back to Wellington there came a few last requests. First 3 days on Waiheke Island where I saw clients and had an incredibly rich and healing time with Luis, Norma and their lovely daughter Carla. Then 3 days in Hamilton seeing the results of  work I had started there earlier on the tour. I met with the staff and gave a talk to the childcare centre parents. It was lovely to see hosts Warwick and Claire again and be astounded by the new wing of the Riveridge Birthing Centre….so beautiful! And of course to spend time again with Carol (supervisor of the Early Childhood programs) and the teachers. Finally 3 days once more in Tauranga working with the school and having fun with Rebecca, Stella, George and Mary. And got to climb Mt. Maunganui at last!

Mt. Maunganui

And that was it for work. Over to Hastings to celebrate my Aunt’s birthday, and suddenly, for the first time, I let myself feel the full weight of the tour…and boy, did I feel tired! There were so many friends I wanted to visit in the Bay but a huge inertia hit me, and I pointed the car south one last time and headed home. On Sunday October 27th I sailed down the Hutt Valley and there was Wellington, shining in the sunlight, welcoming me back. I had begun the tour on February 25th 2012, 20 incredible months before.

So dear friends and family, teachers, parents, children and mentors, thank you all for your encouragement and support. This trip has transformed my life and work in every positive way.

I’m now looking for a new home in Wellington and am open for business…seeing clients in their homes throughout the whole Wellington area from the south coast to Kapiti and Upper Hutt. Once I am settled I will turn my thoughts to finishing the book and setting up a new parenting centre somewhere near the city. No idea yet of when that will be.

In the future I will do more touring, but shorter excursions by car. And though I am sad to part with her I will sell Daffy Duck...put out the word. She would also make a great extra bedroom complete with study! 

Much love to you all and more gratitude than words can say.