Flying into the future

I don't know what happened to December 5th. We seemed to have given it a skip. We hopped on a plane on Tuesday and flew for 12 hours before landing in Auckland on Thursday!

So, if you can't find a good reason to visit us, think about this. It's Tuesday, and the week is really dragging. Four more long days before the weekend. How are you going to make it through another long work week? No problem! Simply hop on a jet to New Zealand, and you'll be there just in time for the weekend. Now you have another good reason to visit.

The flight was not half as bad as we expected. Both kids did really well. They gave us the bulk-head seats with a basinette for Beck. They wouldn't do that for us on our last flight from Europe because Beck was old enough to sit and they were worried that he would fall out of the basinette. Air New Zealand is much more reasonable. If you don't think your baby is in danger - it's up to you. Maybe they would've supplied a bungee to tie to his legs if we had asked. It turns out he didn't stay in the basinette for all that long. They wouldn't let Quinne sleep on the floor though. In comparison, Air France moved Beck from the Basinette to the floor. Strange.

No hitches going through customs, we arrived about 20 minutes early at about 4:45 in the morning. We had reserved the Airport Shuttle online while in San Francisco. We decided that it would be too much to get a rental car and try to find our way around after the long flight. With all the rain, it turned out to be a good decision. Our Russian driver (Pikof van Dropoff (the same Russian Chauffeur from the Car Guys )) safely delivered us to the North Shore where CF and Adrianna Ziervogel live.

By the time we arrived at their house, the drizzle had turned into a torrential downpour. We hauled our luggage into the garage and came inside. Apparently I didn't catch onto this 'day-skip scheme' and told CF that we would arrive on the 5th instead of the 6th. They had been worrying about us the day before, getting up in the middle of the night whenever they heard a noise to see if it was us. Fortuntely we caught them before they went to work. I thought they lived in house number 3, but they actually lived in number 2. It didn't matter because the houses weren't marked anyway. I saw a light on in the middle house and knocked on the door. CF answered and I asked if this was number 3. He said no, and pointed to the next house. As I was walking away, he said "who are you looking for?". I'm so glad he did, otherwise we would've stood in the rain trying to find the wrong house while water permeated through my protective layer of clothing soaking my expensive camera and computer gear.

I drove to the bus stop with Adriana so that we could use their car while she was at work. To stop the kids from destroying their house, and to get our feet under us, we took the car and explored the surrounding neighbourhood. We eventually found a caravan lot and explored all the options of caravans. Richard, the owner took us to a car dealer who showed us some options of vehicles that could tow a caravan. This consumed the majority of the day. On the way back, we stopped at the local beach where Quinne delighted in finding real sea shells right there on the ground. Amy and Beck took a short nap in the car.

Although CF and Adrianna are family, we had never met them before. Even so, they didn't hesitate to open their house up to us. Adriana came home from work with toys for the kids, and cooked a wonderful meal for us. At the end of the day, it was nice to be in a home instead of a hotel.