All Settled In

For those of you who have not already heard, I landed safely in Auckland on Friday morning, May 4, at 5:20am, ahead of schedule.  That seemed to be the trend with all my flights on the trip over, fortunately.  Jacques had arrived at the airport for 5am so he was eagerly waiting when I came through through customs!  In fact, I think I managed to get more sleep than he did the previous night.  I had an entire row of 3 seats to myself on the plane, including the extra blankets and pillows.  I was either laying down or sleeping for about 8 hours of the 12 hour flight.  I also watched We Bought a Zoo and the Vow to keep me busy.  In LAX, I met a Swiss girl traveling to Hastings, NZ to work as an au pair for the first time.  I saw a girl by herself with a backpack and thought that looked familiar so I asked her where she was headed.  We went through security together and sat and chatted until I had to board the plane.  She ended up being on the flight that departed 45 minutes after mine.  When I headed over to my gate to see what seat numbers they called, I asked a girl who looked like she was wondering the same thing, and so we chatted and got in line together.  She was headed back to NZ for only a month to see her boyfriend down in Christchurch where they had been working on the their PhD's.  Then June 1st, she's off to Woods Hole on the Cape to complete her studies for her Marine Biology degree.  Crazy enough, she was in the seat across the isle from me, so I chose a good person to befriend before getting on the plane.  At least we both had someone to talk to when we were awake.

Friday morning, the I got to see the beautiful sunrise over the city as we drove home from the airport.  Luckily, Jacques' new job (where he had only worked 4 days) knew I was arriving and allowed him to come in late to work and even leave early!  So we had a little bit of time to relax before I had to get reacquainted with driving on the left side of the road to drop him at the bus.  Either from excitement of being back or have a decent sleep on the plane, I felt energized and like it was any other normal day.  I completely unpacked and moved in and then headed down to Devonport to see Jess and Ariel before the school pick-up.  I had a nice vegan green smoothie (with kale) call "Shrek".  Apparently there is only one supermarket in the country where you can buy kale, and fortunately it is on the North Shore (close-by).  The downside is that they don't always carry it!  Perhaps I need some seeds to grow my own!

On my way back north, I stopped in at the Clinton household to see the kids.  They were surprised, however Tessa has apparently been talking about me all day, knowing I was arriving in the country that day.  Then she played shy when she saw me! Had to hold Julia's hand and hide behind her.  It was pretty cute actually, but only lasted about 10 minutes until she was pulling on my hand to go play in her room.  Libby was her usual energetic self jumping all over me and running in and out of the room trying to make loud noises and surprise us.  Reuben took a minute from his play date and lego building to give me a hug.

As my phone was not working yet, I borrowed a phone to call Jacques and see if he wanted to be picked up from the bus.  Turns out he had gotten out of work early and was locked out of the house because I had his keys and no one was home so was waiting at the mall for someone to come home.  One thing I certainly did not miss is rush-hour traffic on the motorway.  It took much longer than usual to get up to the mall.  We got a few things including replacement hangers because I had raided the house of all spare ones I could find.  We ate dinner and had a quiet evening, watching the American Idol I had missed on Wed night on the plane.

Saturday, I woke up a bit earlier than I would have liked, but we got our errands done before Jacques had to be at CrossFit at noon.  Later we had a "bring a plate" dinner at Matt's so I could see Matt, Sam, Nick and Marc.  By the end of Saturday night, I really felt like I could have only been gone 8 days and not 8 months.  Everything is so familiar, it's almost like I'd never left.

Sunday, I got to see the views from Jacques' new office building! 37th floor of the 2nd tallest building in Auckland (next to the sky tower).  It was another nice sunny day so the views were very pretty.  Then we printed out all the documents we needed to prove our partnership so that I can submit my application for my work visa this week.  We also went grocery shopping to make sure I had some vegan food to eat in this household full of meat and egg eaters.  We discovered there is a MUCH smaller selection of all things but especially almond milk or rice milk.  Both are very expensive and also very sweet! I'm still looking for unsweetened versions!  So vegan eating will be a bit more difficult here, but I'm managing so far.

This morning I drove Jacques to the bus for 5:30am so he could catch it to the airport for his flight to Gisborne, where he will be until Thursday night for work.  Really not the best timing, but he had to learn the ropes down there and being only his 2nd week of work there really wasn't any way around it. At least he shouldn't have to go back for awhile.

My stuff....did a bit better with the packing this time

Obie trying to protest my leaving

My row on the plane :)

Nice sunny day to welcome me back :) View from the bedroom

Overall, I am very happy to be back.  I can't wait to catch up with other friends I still need to see in the next few weeks!  I also can't wait to see Tessa dancing at toddler toes tomorrow.  She and her friend Katerina are so adorable together!