This year when we dreamed about what we wanted to see and do for the year, an RV trip to New Zealand was high on the list. We figured we’d go sometime around September – plenty of time to plan and dream, and catch the shoulder season between winter and summer. What we didn’t dream about (at least not yet) was transitioning from homeschooling and back into school for the kids. But after oodles of dreaming and scheming and thinking, we decided that this year will be our last year of homeschooling.

Homeschooling has been an unexpected joy for us… It has been the right choice for these last five years. We’ve taken full advantage of the flexibility, travel opportunities and togetherness that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Homeschooling can be hard work and often frustrating. But our days have been overwhelmingly filled with curiosity and fun, and well worth the effort we’ve put into it. At least for our family.

But the kids are starting to need more than our homeschool can provide to them, and so we made the hard decision to enroll them in a traditional school next year. Amelia will go into 8th grade, so she’ll have a year to make a transition before starting high school. Duke will go into 5th grade. Both of them will have a chance to take Japanese classes, learn an instrument, do art, and join any the sports and clubs on offer. So while we’re sad to see the end of a chapter that we’ve all loved, we’re also excited about launching into the next chapter.

Which is all to say that our plans for an RV trip through New Zealand in September got completely upended, and we made a relatively late call to squeeze a trip into May instead. So we’re on our way to Auckland now, via Tokyo. If all goes well, we’ll have about a day and a half in Auckland, and then we’ll pick up a rental RV, and loop around the northern end of the North Island. We had such a hard time narrowing it down… North Island or South Island? Auckland or Wellington? Coramandel or Bay of Islands? We could have easily filled months with all the amazing things to do on an RV trip here, but we only have two weeks. So we made some tough (relatively uninformed) decisions, and put together a rough itinerary. As always (for us, anyway), we’ll work out the details as we go. What we’ve got so far promises to be full of beautiful vistas, lots of Maori culture, some kiwis, and (hopefully…)a whole lot of fun.