First Day in New Zealand

The journey from LA to Auckland is all a bit of a blur because, to be honest, we were so incredibly comfortable (for a change) on the trip over to New Zealand.
    As far as Charlotte is concerned, we showed the lady our boarding passes, had dinner and threw our jammys on - the next thing we know, we're sitting in Auckland Airport asking for a funny looking (NZ) dollar coin to ride the Buzzy Bee!

Aunty Lucy had just finished a night-shift, so was home sleeping when we arrived; but lucky for us, Uncle Regan and Amelia were there to pick us up and buy us all a long-awaited Flat White. 

   After collecting our baggage, the next job on the list was to turn our Canadian iPhones into unwitting slaves of the appallingly slow Tele-scum 3G network. 

    Sipping our coffees, we punched out a series of test messages to let people know we'd arrived. In response, we received this photo from Niccy-Niccy in Dunedin, promising good weather and good times with family when we travel south in six days time...

Rainbow over Purakaunui Inlet

After almost 48 hours floating in the atmosphere, we put all the travelling behind us and headed west to RNZAF Base Whenuapai, to start our NZ Vacation.

We were all totally beat, so after a lazy afternoon playing with Amelia for a while on the mat, we eventually made ourselves some Milo (hot chocolate), threw our jammas back on. It was around this time we joined Aunty Lucy for a snooze...

I admit being back on the Air Force Base again was a little strange for me after so many years away. Specially after meeting the first Commissioned-Officer that I didn't have to salute.

    I looked around marvelling at how much had changed (and also the many things that had obviously stayed the same), while Michelle and Charlotte seemed more interested in the funny looking birds, the great New Zealand weather and the funny clouds moving across the sky, (not to mention the C-130 Hercules doing circuits and passing overhead every six minutes). 

    Truth be told, the biggest draw card for all of us was Tig's beautiful little cousin, Amelia - who seemed to light up like a firecracker every time Charlotte walked in the room.

Stashing my passport away in my bag for the last time in three days, I sighed. I realized I was the local boy again, and it was Michelle and Charlotte's turn to be the immigrants.

    After enduring the longest, coldest Canadian winter in almost 30 years, it took a little bit of explaining to convince Charlotte that it was OK to sleep with the curtains closed and the windows open.

    Tired as we were, we were all pretty excited to be home, and it took a little while to settle down for the first proper rest in days. I was looking forward to showing Michelle and Charlotte around their 'home-away-from-home', and could tell the girls were looking forward to connecting with their extended New Zealand family. I think this holiday was going to be fun.