Last night we parked up at The Gardens. It's a dead end street so we are out of the way of everyone. There are no residential houses where we park apart from one that has it's living areas facing the other way and is on the opposite side of the road. I thought it was a place where no one would be bothered by us. Plus, we park up once it's dark and move off by about 0830. However, at about 0550 a group of boot camp fitness guys arrived to do their outdoor training. It's quite a popular thing these days instead of going to a gym. As they were running past, one woman started speaking reasonable loudly and obviously objected to us being parked there. She said " This is not a good place to sleep, free loaders".
It's interesting peoples reactions to us freedom camping. We try very hard to choose places that are not in any ones way but unless you are living a conventional life we are not welcome. I would have loved to have talked with this woman, to explain our situation, it would have sounded something like this:
' Three years ago we moved to India. We were working in India at a girls home for disadvantaged kids. We sold everything before we left. We had a five bedroom house and life was ticking along nicely for us. We do not begrudge selling up and going but unfortunately it all came to an abrupt halt in India and we could no longer stay. We ended up back in New Zealand unable to get Visas sorted. We have a company here but had subcontracted all the work out as we thought we were returning to India for another 5 years at least. We could take the work back and put the other families we had subcontracted into financial difficulty but we decided to take the financial hit ourselves. We have a two bedroom unit we rent out and we pay rates on that but it's not big enough for our family of 9 and Auckland rent and house prices are something we can not afford at present. So, our options are:
a) put all the kids into school and daycare and both of us find full time work and rent a house and see if we can make ends meet. We would probably need financial assistance from the government to do this.
b) We would probably qualify for a house from Housing New Zealand based on our current finances.
or what we are currently doing
c) Get a couple of mobile homes, grow our company while David gets bits of work to maintain us and live on the streets of Auckland.
So, if we really wanted to be free loaders I think we made the wrong choice. We are trying not to be reliant on government hand outs. We want to do what we can ourselves to keep out of financial debt and continue with a lifestyle that allows us to home educate our kids and give them opportunities we could never give them if all our money went into rent. I'm sorry if our life style upsets you but we are certainly not free loading.'
Right, now that I have that little rant out the way..... where am I right now?
I'm parked outside the Manurewa pools. The girls are doing their book work inside before they start water polo and the boys are here with me in Mother Trucker. Once they are done I will take them in for a swim and a good old scrub in the showers. It's hair wash day today as there will be plenty of water. Maybe that sounds like free loading? Here's a couple of pics of us parked up here at the pools.
After water polo we will head to the North Shore and park up at my parents place. I want to visit my Nan as she is not doing well at all. From what I gather she is not speaking or conscious now. The last time I saw her she was still talking and as I left I told her I loved her and she said she loved me too. It will be nice if those are our last words to each other. I just pray she passes away quickly and peacefully now. I know she's going to a better place and although we will miss her here for a bit, at least I know it's not the end of her but just a transition into eternity where I will one day see her again. It must be awful for those that don't have this surety. Death must be so terribly sad if you think that's the end.
It's interesting peoples reactions to us freedom camping. We try very hard to choose places that are not in any ones way but unless you are living a conventional life we are not welcome. I would have loved to have talked with this woman, to explain our situation, it would have sounded something like this:
' Three years ago we moved to India. We were working in India at a girls home for disadvantaged kids. We sold everything before we left. We had a five bedroom house and life was ticking along nicely for us. We do not begrudge selling up and going but unfortunately it all came to an abrupt halt in India and we could no longer stay. We ended up back in New Zealand unable to get Visas sorted. We have a company here but had subcontracted all the work out as we thought we were returning to India for another 5 years at least. We could take the work back and put the other families we had subcontracted into financial difficulty but we decided to take the financial hit ourselves. We have a two bedroom unit we rent out and we pay rates on that but it's not big enough for our family of 9 and Auckland rent and house prices are something we can not afford at present. So, our options are:
a) put all the kids into school and daycare and both of us find full time work and rent a house and see if we can make ends meet. We would probably need financial assistance from the government to do this.
b) We would probably qualify for a house from Housing New Zealand based on our current finances.
or what we are currently doing
c) Get a couple of mobile homes, grow our company while David gets bits of work to maintain us and live on the streets of Auckland.
So, if we really wanted to be free loaders I think we made the wrong choice. We are trying not to be reliant on government hand outs. We want to do what we can ourselves to keep out of financial debt and continue with a lifestyle that allows us to home educate our kids and give them opportunities we could never give them if all our money went into rent. I'm sorry if our life style upsets you but we are certainly not free loading.'
Right, now that I have that little rant out the way..... where am I right now?
I'm parked outside the Manurewa pools. The girls are doing their book work inside before they start water polo and the boys are here with me in Mother Trucker. Once they are done I will take them in for a swim and a good old scrub in the showers. It's hair wash day today as there will be plenty of water. Maybe that sounds like free loading? Here's a couple of pics of us parked up here at the pools.
After water polo we will head to the North Shore and park up at my parents place. I want to visit my Nan as she is not doing well at all. From what I gather she is not speaking or conscious now. The last time I saw her she was still talking and as I left I told her I loved her and she said she loved me too. It will be nice if those are our last words to each other. I just pray she passes away quickly and peacefully now. I know she's going to a better place and although we will miss her here for a bit, at least I know it's not the end of her but just a transition into eternity where I will one day see her again. It must be awful for those that don't have this surety. Death must be so terribly sad if you think that's the end.
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