Our First Days....

We have been in New Zealand for almost a week.  Getting here was exciting and the kids did better than we could of hoped for.   All three fell asleep for most of the long ride across the world.  Chris and I were especially proud of Jane and surprised she did so well.  Our kids have traveled with us quite a bit and have always been good travelers, but Jane being 2 1/2 and testing us in all the ways a child at that age can do, we were looking at her wanting to say thank you, thank you Jane! 

Our first experience started off with our 45 minute taxi drive to Devonport a suburb off of Auckland.  I was looking at Chris hoping we would have enough money as I noticed the meter was already at 80 dollars only 20 minutes in.  Upon arriving at 20 Hastings Parade the total came to 150 dollars.  Boy was that expensive!  Oh well, at least the big van could get all 5 of us along with our 10 oversized pieces of  luggage, car seats, 3 blankets, camera, camcorder, and about 6 carry on bags all together as one happy family.

We left The US on Saturday evening at about 9:00pm and arrived to 20 Hasting Parade at 9:00am, we are 19 hours ahead.  We were excited and running on adrenaline for most of the first day. We walked into our place in which we found on the Internet and established in faith. We were overjoyed to find that it was better than we thought.  The place is super cute, clean, unique, and has everything that we will need.  The kids were even more excited. Julia and Luke walked in and saw that the house has several lofts.  They have each claimed one for their own club house.  There are three bedrooms, one for Julia, One for Luke, one for Chris and I, and three for Jane! 

Peter our land lord met us at the house.  He is a super nice guy who I gather as quite the intellectual.  He's a engineer/motivational speaker of some sort, with a warm smile. He is very considerate and thoughtful.  He had a pot of coffee and a few items in the refrigerator ready for us when we arrived.  He also has given Chris a bike to ride to work on, a couple of basketballs for the kids, and he doesn't seem to be bothered by kids.  Our first day here was quite welcoming and made us feel that we are where we need to be.