Cast your minds back to March 23, 2020 when we arrived to our Crystal Cottage house rental; the same day that NZ announced its first Covid countrywide lock-down. In that blog post we called it "home for now", certainly having NO clue that we'd enjoy over two years there, and only officially move out today, 756 days later!!
Crystal Cottage Top 10 Hits
It's hard to understate how grateful we feel for being able to call such a special spot home for the past two years. The setting. The views. The cozy cottage. The people (aka our "Kiwi family"). Just remarkable.
At our final Crystal Cottage family dinner last night, we came up with our "Top 10" list for Crystal Cottage. (Side note: We also made "Top 10" lists for each country we visited. I need to add those as a blog post!) More than 10 highlights, but that's allowed :) In no particular order:
Climbing trees (Sadie)
Epic views all around (family)
Amazing sunrises (family)
Rainbows (family)
Horses all around us (Paige)
Front deck and indoor/outdoor flow (Sarah)
Small & efficient kitchen (Doug)
Windows all around, like you're living in nature (Sadie)
The yard and all the sports we'd play . . . netball, touch rugby, badminton, catch, paddle ball, long ball (Paige)
"Village" gatherings (Sarah)
Watching the weather (Doug & Sarah)
Rural, being away from town on our own (Sadie)
Lettuce (family)
Laundry clothesline outside (Sarah)
How cozy it is (Sadie)
Morning coffee on the deck (Sarah)
The stars, the moon and the Milky Way (Doug)
Silence and nature noises, e.g. birds (family)
Everything (Sadie)
Final Evening
A few pictures of our final evening . . . gorgeous cloud formations tinted purple/pink by the sunset, snagging a bunch of lettuce for dinner salad, a final adult cheers in the front yard and chatter about what's ahead.
Thank You Andrew, Erika & Tomas
We left a unique thank you note for Andrew, Erika & Tomas this morning before we left . . . Paige made a really cool note & drawings on a plank of plywood we had laying around. We all signed it. I absolutely love each of our expressions of gratitude for this special place:
Paige: Thank you for letting us stay at the amazing home you guys made. I will always remember it.
Sadie: Thank you for letting us stay for a while! Who knows where we would be if we couldn't stay here.
Doug: You are officially our Kiwi family! Thanks for making these two years amazing!
Sarah: What an amazing two years we've enjoyed in this special spot with all you special people! We'll always cherish our time at Crystal Cottage!
Bonafide Home
Doug made a really good point the other day, that Crystal Gardens is our 3rd family home (4th for me & Doug):
243 W. 72nd St, NYC, NY (Sarah & Doug's 1st home together)
147 W. 88th St, NYC, NY (1st family home all together, the only home Paige & Sadie knew until the global subway left the station in July 2019)
the world (we consider our 8 months of international travel as a family one collective home)
296 Littles Rd, Queenstown, NZ aka "Crystal Cottage
I love that the girls will look back on their childhoods and will absolutely no doubt remember Crystal Cottage as one of their homes. The connection is genuine and one to cherish.
We wish the new owners of the cottage & plot of land all the happiness that we enjoyed there! Thankfully we'll still be local, just up the road, and will be able to visit our "Village" neighbors. Crystal Cottage, you were the best!!
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