NZ , XMAS '05 - '06

Hi All,

VERY VERY behind obviously, sorry about that....we're well (its the 5th March here at the mo)...quite cold...had a little bit of snow here last week, but nothing too serious (basically mid-summer by Toronto standards :)

Anyways,
Thought Id write a quick note about our visit home to change our Visa's and see the fam's.

Some people don't truly appreciate just how far away the UK and NZ are.

..I know we didn’t really...so we thought we'd get down to NZ as quick as poss with no stops.

Turns out it takes 36hours of non-stop travel (well...including 5 hours waiting around in LAX)...ARGHHH

I guess the circumstances weren't the best....we'd only decided to come at the last minute, so we had to take the cheapest tickets we could get (which were still £1300 each!...triple the normal price...bloody Xmas!), which went the longest route.

Anyhow, we survived ok, and as a result got our 12 hour flight routine down pat....which was handy since we had 4 X 12 hours flights in the space of 2.5 weeks :(

So,

We FINALLY landed in NZ, and got picked up by Christine and Bazza (thanks!)

...of course, being Christine, we drove straight to Tania and Pete's to say hi (Hi!...36 hours in the same pants...feeling great!), and then back to the cassa del Powell.

......and back into our old life!...all of our furniture, TV etc.. was still there..our bed etc...Even our Pets!

So that was weird, but it was great to see folk, and my cats too..

The next day we had to fly down to Wellington

to sort out our Visa's for the UK, which went very smoothly thanks to:

a) Carens research and getting all the paper work together

b) Dad flying over from Aus to hand deliver my grandfathers birth certificate

c) Paul and Dad chauffeur driving us from the Airport in Welly to the British consulate

..so thanks all, that went well.

Anyways, back up to Akl that afternoon, and plunge into the chaos of trying to visit everyone we can and do Christmas etc.

I must admit , a lot of the details are a blur, as it was a SERIOUSLY busy time, but we caught up with lots of folk..but unfortunately missed out on seeing even more.

Xmas eve dinner was at the Hedleys, and was great, good to see all

Also managed to spend a fair bit of time with my sister and new Niece and Dad, which was also great!

Xmas day was Breakfast at Danielle’s (yum), Lunch at Kevin Powell’s, and Dinner at Christine’s...man, hard out.

Anyways, lots of dinners out and BBQ's, and we even managed to get the Beach once (thanks Mich and Malc's)

We went to the zoo with Tan's, Pete and Nicole which was a hoot (although I think the jet lag was starting to catch up at that stage!)

On the way back to London we stopped at LA again, but this time we stayed for a few days, and went out to 6 Flags Magic Mountain, which was awesome...

Was very quiet, so we were able to walk straight on to any ride we wanted, thankfully, as there were SO MANY coasters to go on, it took us 6 hours solid to go on them all!

Anyways, back to London and back to work...

....next stop Austria!