That's it after 13 yrs here we're heading home.

House sold, will be homeless from 23rd March.

Shippers come for stuff on 21/22nd.

Fly out on 27th March going via Shanghai and have booked business class on China Eastern as that was cheaper than premium economy with other carriers ... time will tell if that was the right decision.

Dog flies out on the 28th March and is costing an arm & a leg ... would have been cheaper to get him a business class seat too if they'd allow it.

Just got to sell the boat and the cars and I'll be a happy bunny.

Then I suppose it'll all get hectic at the other end getting a rental that will allow dogs.

Best of luck! I've been here since '95 and hope to be back home in a year or two.

what are you plans for the UK. you moving back to whence you came or trying somewhere different?

Moving back to same county (Notts) but probably a different area.

All the best Robbie2010.

We've done 13 yrs too Been here. Done that to death and also hoping we may begin a new phase up in the NH in a few years to come.

Its grandchildren that are the main driving force in us going back ... missing so much with them on the other side of the world.

Good Luck on the Move

As someone who has moved his dog from UK-Aus-Canada-Philippines-finally back to the UK last year I feel your pain. I am heading down in 3 weeks to NZ, sadly they quoted me close to GBP5K so as he is nearly 11 and will be looked after here by family, his travel days are over :-)

What's the NH BEVS?

Northern hemisphere?

Fair play to you.

If it makes you feel a bit more positive about coming back, we've not had one regret coming 'home'.

The cheap beer is waiting for you.

I wont have any regrets about coming back but then again I dont regret coming to NZ either.

Looking forward to seeing a lot more of Europe that I've not explored.

NZ was a good experience but its not a place that I want to be old in, the older I get the less I want to be here.

I totally understand that, exactly the same as us.

We are just waiting for the wife to start her new job then we plan to explore Europe more, it's bonkers how we didn't take advantage of it more before we left. I think we will do some cheap weekends away and also a Mediterranean cruise when our son hits 2 years old.

I dropped my mates off at the airport a couple of weeks back, they were heading to Gdansk for the weekend. I looked at it and for us 2 to have a 3 night long weekend there it would cost 200 quid for flights and hotel.

Good luck. We came back 10 months ago after almost 10 years. Had a few ups and downs but we made the right decision. Enjoying life down in Devon. We didn't want to grow old in NZ either. We also brought cat and dog back - cost small fortune but worth it.

I'm very jealous Robbie. Good luck with your plans.

So pleased to hear of others not regretting the decision to head home. One of my biggest fears is that it will be the wrong decision for us.

Hope all goes well Robbie2010 the nearer we get to retirement (still quite a way to go) the more I think we should start making tracks. Exchange rate and house prices are all stacked in our favour for returning and I have a few ideas up my sleeve - just need to float them past the other half a few more times until he has a light bulb moment and thinks it was all his idea.