We sold the house within one week of putting it up for sale, and we were very lucky we didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Luckily the Dutch house market was in a frenzy and it went super fast. We still had a lot of other stuff we needed to get rid of. We weren’t going to bring our couch, car, one of our bikes, and a whole lot of other stuff and still needed to donate or sell these. 

A big portion of our time we spent at our jobs. Let’s face it, this move ain’t cheap and we can use all the numbers in the bank before we take off. I worked until the day before Christmas and got to enjoy a Christmas dinner with the whole company to say goodbye to them. I had a wonderful time and wish it could have been longer as I learned much and had such a great team of people to work with. 

We went to visit my grandparents in Spain, spend my last vacation days on this time off and it was so worth it. It was great to spend time with them before we leave because they are not likely to make the trip to New Zealand to come to visit us there. It was as if time stood still in their home, no modern tech and best of all it still looked and smelled exactly like I remember. Funny how smell is so strong when it comes to recalling memories but one of the hardest things to remember. If you have grandparents or family members that might not have the chance to make the journey to you, I highly recommend making some time for them.

We spent our holidays with our family and friends. We had a Christmas without gifts this time, which was a relief and time saver not having to search for the perfect gift for everybody. It was wonderful to spend the holidays with them and just enjoy good food and games together. Don’t make the same mistake we made and take some pictures during those dinners and games.

We had requested a couple of quotes from moving companies and had talked to a couple of them when they came over to assess the amount of stuff we had. It was a lot of dry reading on terms for what was included, who would be doing what and when and how, and insurance policies. We went with the company that offered us a good price as well as the confidence it would go well and that they were helping us.

Meanwhile, we were sorting our stuff into 2 camps, ‘Bringing’ and ‘Ditching’. While the Ditching pile was slowly being moved to goodwill, dump, and being sold, the stuff in the Bringing camp was being packed in boxes and organized for transport. Secretly there was a third camp called ‘Flying’ which had all our stuff that we’d want to bring but not wait 3 months to have it, our luggage and carry-on. This also needed to be figured out and packed. When we had our suitcase ready, we moved to my boyfriend’s mom’s attic for our last 2-3 weeks in the Netherlands. This way we would not accidentally have our suitcases packed for the container by the movers and we could take apart our bed and wash and dry the sheets so they would be clean in the container.

Some of our things would pose a biohazard for New Zealand, not because we are such dirty humans living in filth, but because New Zealand is super concerned about foreign species of everything that lives. So we had to do some seriously good cleaning. Riding boots, anything that touched horses, camping gear, hiking boots, our 1 bike that would come with and all our dog gear. Everything was scrubbed clean of dirt, grass, hair, sand and dust meticulously. Even with an old toothbrush to get into the really fine lines of my riding boots. Cleaning took a lot of time and went on until and even on Christmas day. Because when the container shows up the day after, it just needs to be done, Christmas or no Christmas. Special thanks to my dad who drove out to us to help with cleaning my bike and drove back to get changed and ready for us to visit them later that day.

We couldn’t bring our plants as nothing alive is allowed into the country by transport. Over time I had collected a fair amount of beautiful plants in our home. I wanted to find a nice new home for them with people who also love plants. Fortunately, most of them found a new home quickly with family and friends who also love plants. I’m looking forward to starting a new plant family in Christchurch with New Zealand native species, although I will miss my Alocasia Gageana and my Monstera Deliciosa, my most beautiful plant babies. Snif snif.

During this busy time of cleaning, organizing, and planning we also had a ton of goodbye parties, at my riding school, at work, with friends, dinners, visits, last birthday parties to attend to etc. It was really crazy how much effort so many people put into it, and while we were exhausted from all of the work, we felt so loved and supported by all of our friends and families. It was a little heartbreaking to realize we are going to miss all of these amazing people and I definitely shed a few tears here and there. This is the hardest part of moving in my opinion. While I loved all our goodbye parties and ‘lasts’, I will miss our family and friends and hope to make long-distance friendships work.

After the moving company took our stuff and we moved into the attic, we thought we’d have a bit more time to relax. Surprise surprise, there was a lot more work to do. We had to sign out of the Netherlands and become officially homeless, cancel all our subscriptions, insurances, sign out of dentists, doctor’s offices and get our medical dossiers printed. We had to check if the transfer of ownership of our house and car were processed properly, cancel accompanying insurances and double-check if we were signed out of our city. I downgraded my phone plan in the Netherlands so I could keep my number a little longer. I did that so I could change the number to a New Zealand number in a bunch of accounts that use it in security checks before cancelling it.

Prioritizing all of the tasks was a bit challenging, with some time dependent, some unknown until we realized it late, and some just less important than others. We had some last-minute arrangements to do as well. We still needed to book a rental car for New Zealand, we had a photoshoot with family, and find, compare and request healthcare insurance for when we’d get to New Zealand. We needed to book a table at our favourite Chinese restaurant for dinner with the family on our last night in the country, go to a housewarming, and sell our car... With all that was going on, we forgot to put it up for sale on time and it turned into a last-minute thing where we sold it the day before we left. Possibly with a bigger loss than we intended but at least we didn’t have to worry about that anymore, which is also worth something.

Writing this post has me wide-eyed with surprise that we got all this done in about 3 months while working for more than ⅔ of that time. The only reason we got all of this done is that we had help from wonderful people. I want to end this post with a big thanks to everyone who helped us cleaning, let us stay over, let us borrow their car, cooked for us, organized parties for us, shared our ad to sell our car and who were flexible in their schedule to make time for us.