Auckland!

13 hour flight – DONE!

We made it! I am amazed at how well the kids (and the parents) did on the haul over the Pacific.Everyone slept most of the way and I was even able to get in 2 1/2 movies. (A rarity these days to enjoy even one in a month!) Air New Zealand was awesome. The people were so friendly, helpful and their service was fantastic. For some reason, we had issues with wet seat cushions (one due to a spilling water bottle on my backpack and the other due to a little sleepytime accident) but other than that, all went spectacularly well. The kids just did so great, I’m still a little amazed.

Oh, but the adventure continues…Because our flight was delayed we had to hustle our bustle to make it to our connector in Auckland to Wellington. Have you seen “Home Alone” where the entire family had to run through O’Hare airport to make their flight? That was us after de-planing the 747, gathering our 5 – 50 pound suitcases plus carry-ons, going through Customs, then X-rays, then walking our happy little selves plus our gear 10 minutes to the Domestic Terminal, going through X-rays again, finding the lift (elevator) to our gate and hearing “last call for the McIntyre family” several times while trying to find the gate that had been changed while we were enroute. This is where we were running, sweating through the corridor trying to find our gate. We made it but they literally shut the door as soon as we sat down. I’m so thankful they waited! I’m not sure we could’ve handled anymore airport time. They do have McDonald’s in the Auckland airport so I’m sure we would’ve survived the wait.

I will tell you, the people are so daggum friendly here! In Auckland as I was running to find our gate to tell them we were on our way, a nice man said “you don’t have to run, they won’t leave you. We don’t do that here.” And everyone has really been so helpful. As we were making our 10-minute jaunt to the domestic terminal from international, one of our bags on the pushcart I was in charge of started to slip and this nice family asked if they could help and even help me to my car…then they saw Ben come and help but how nice they were to offer. That’s just 2 examples of the many instances…and we’ve only been in kiwi space 2 days. I think they just have such a different view on life here and don’t take things so seriously. We were so surprised to hear from our new airport friends, the Brown’s, that you don’t tip at all, anywhere in NZ.That’s just part of their job. How cool is that?

Now, we are on our way to Wellington, the sun is just rising and looking out of the window I see nothing but beauty. The fog lies close to the mountains and the ocean looks as smooth as glass.Above the clouds you can see the higher mountain peeking through. This country is just absolutely beautiful!

One thing MaeMae said as we were landing in Wellington: "This isn't New Zealand...this is Orangeburg! I want to go to New Zealand!" Ben and I just busted out laughing!

Wellington

We arrived in Wellington on a beautiful Sunday morning with a bit of chill in the air. The winter weather is nothing like I expected it to be...it's chilly but not freezing cold. In Wellington we gathered our bags after changing into warmer clothes and got our rental car. You know they would give the Americans the reddest car on the lot. It's a hoot! But, all our luggage and knick knacks fit in...ok, so we had to put all 3 kids in the backseat (CW and MK in one seat belt) with 2 of the large suitcases but we're foreigners so we don't know any better, right?

So, off we go to find our hotel in downtown Wellington! It's so tricky driving on the left hand side of the road. I don't think I'll drive at all while we are here...I mean we're talking some serious coordination! Now, I will have to tell a little on Ben...we were driving around and around looking for our hotel (thanks Garmin!) and while in the heat of arguing which way to go I noticed Ben getting a little too close to those cars on my side and sure enough he side-swiped a mirror. Now, I think it was just a little swipe (no kiwi blue lights gave chase)...no total mirror demolition by any means...but it did give us some much needed humor after travelling for 30+hours and all the drama that goes with it.

Finally, we found our hotel, the Museum Hotel across from Oriental Bay. It's beautiful and is within walking distance of a ton of restaurants, shopping and most importantly much room for the kids to run off some energy. Today we were able to hit up the local Farmer's Market on the wharf and get some good veggies (as they say) and fruit.

The outing wouldn't be complete without someone breaking something in a store so leave it to yours truly to drop a glass jar of salt on the floor of the organic food store. I mean of all places, really! They, in keeping with true NZ spirit, were so nice and it wasn't a big deal at all and we didn't even have to pay for it. They must not have the "you break it, you buy it" rule like we do in the states.

Now, the kids are all tucked in at 5pm NZ time and I pray the sleep all night and even sleep in. It has been a long journey but I thank God (continously) for the many blessings and paths we gave us along the way. It was a smooth-sailing trip and I pray the rest of our adventure goes just the same. God is awesome and loving and I know it will!

Thank you for praying over us while we travelled and, in turn, I pray blessing upon you as well! One can never have too many prayers coming his/her way! :)

Note: The reason some of my entries are in past tense and some are in present tense is because I wrote some of them on the different planes and saved them.