Paddington on Patrol, part 1, The preparation.

I lost my car keys today, along with my patience & half my hair. You see, I've been packing. We are off on Walkabout, Hikoi of happiness, trip of a lifetime, call it what you will. There has been a lot of preparation & planning for this trip. Really, it started over a year ago when we had this vague idea that we would like to do a big road trip to meet all our online friends & catch up with family & see country that neither of us have seen before. As Jude has now got limited mobility, this has started to assume more importance than ever in our lives.

One of the reasons that we wanted to drive down is that I have a store of family heirlooms & memorabilia that I want to pass on to my sons. Another is that I haven't seen the majority of The South Island other than what you happen to see from the air on the way to Dunedin, what you see from hoofing it round Queen Charlotte Sound & the Rae Valley at Outward Bound & also Dunedin & its immediate environs. Hence the road trip.

Other reasons include a brand new grandson to meet, my 60th birthday to celebrate, and the whole of the West Coast to explore, so it's a biggy.

There has been substantial preparation involved. Aside from ransacking the house for the stuff that I want to take down for my sons, there is stuff like enough library books to read, (substantial) enough medication to last us both for about two months, making sure that Jude has sufficient hardware to keep her PEG functional and most importantly, enough Fortisip to keep Jude well nourished. You see, 95% of her food intake now is Fortisip via her PEG. What we have is two months worth carefully packed in Sherman plus a prescription for an extra months worth that we can get filled in Dunedin when we have the room to get it in.

Its been quite a mission to organise everything. Friends & rellies to bludge a bed from, working out an itinerary, getting my own stuff packed & most importantly, getting Sherman ready & packed to go. Taking out the back seat has given us a lot of extra room. Just enough to ensure that we have enough room, with careful packing & the wheelchair on the roof, to get everything in. Oh Yeah, The wheelchair on the roof. That involved a major. Mu's, which is what Sherman is, aren't really designed to have roof racks. However, a bit of lateral thinking, more than a modicum of patience & a day & a half's fiddling have produced very satisfactory results.

So we're all packed, ready to depart for Hastings about the time that the sparrows are considering breaking wind in the morning. We are staying with one of Jude's cousins for the weekend & they have organised a get together with some of Jude's other cousins in the area. Trust us. The weather is turning to big sockfuls of cold custard as of tomorrow, but never mind.. We are on holiday....
Paddington is wondering if Sherman can spare enough room for a small suitcase & a VERY well behaved Bear...