All is Well in Wellington... Well Almost

Girls watching our Air New Zealand plane arriving at the gate

We have arrived in Wellington, NZ. We had a nice long flight from LA to Auckland. We flew Air New Zealand. It was a roughly 13 hour flight. As much as I truly have a fear of flying, it was a pretty okay flight. I figured if we were going to crash and die at least we would do it together as a family. Plus, they provided us with plenty of movies to distract us. The flight left at night, so some of us were able to sleep through much of it. Our seats had footrests that even pulled out to make a "bed." It was perfect for someone the size of six year-old Lucy. The rest of us were able to contort our bodies into yoga-like poses to be comfortable every once in awhile.

As we landed in Auckland I had tears of joy in my eyes. Tears for the fact that we had finally arrived and tears because I was also in the middle of a really sweet part of my inflight movie of "Hidden Figures." I was right at the part where the guy proposes to her. I'll have to finish that movie another time. On to Auckland.

We had a very short window at the Auckland airport to get off the plane, go to the bathroom, get our luggage, go through customs, walk 10 minutes to the domestic terminal, recheck our baggage, go through security, and then run to make our flight. As we were in line for security we could hear on the overhead intercom that our flight to Wellington was boarding. We thought there was no way we would make it. Stephen even emailed his company saying we probably wouldn't make the flight. But, false alarm. By a miracle, we made our flight. We were the last onboard, but we made it!

Our flight from Auckland to Wellington was a quick up and down, one hour flight. We couldn't see too much of the North Island as we flew over because of cloud cover. But we did see what I believe is Mt. Taranaki, a huge snow covered volcano. Very impressive. As we landed in Wellington we could feel our first experience of Wellington wind as it shook our plane. This is indeed a windy city and we arrived right in the middle of winter.

Mt. Taranaki from the plane

Even though it is winter here we were warmly greeted at the airport by two men from Stephen's company. They took us to get a rental car, get money from the bank and then drove us to our accommodations. We get to stay in an old victorian home in downtown Wellington. It as been modernized and is quite nice. Each girl gets her own room and we even have two kitchens. We will stay here while we look for a home to rent.

Gandalf also greeted us in the Wellington Airport. Welcome to Middle Earth!   

We ventured on foot into the city to get lunch. Wellington is quite hilly. It feels a lot like SF. We walked down many flights of stairs to get to a cafe. The food was great. I had my very first NZ style meat pie. It did not disappoint. And then we had to walk back up those many flights of stairs back to our house. Stephen counted 188 stairs in all. Maybe we burned off enough calories to cover our lunches. Maybe.

Later in the day Stephen had a driving "lesson" from one of the guys from work. Mostly the guy just had Stephen drive to the office. They drive on the left side of the road. Stephen says it takes some concentration. I haven't attempted any driving yet.

While Stephen was driving, the other guy from work took me and the girls to the supermarket to stock up the house. Happily a NZ supermarket isn't too different from an American one. The only products I couldn't find were pancake mix, turkey lunchmeat, sliced cheese, and any cereal that we are used to. Food prices are a bit more than what I am used to, which I expected. But so far I have been really impressed with the quality of the food. The butter is so creamy. The milk tastes really fresh. The peanut butter is delicious. The easy peel mandarin oranges are much larger than clementines in the states. I think I will feel comfortable with grocery shopping fairly quickly.

Sadly, they have a limited selection of Mexican food and beans aren't cheap.

Yummy large clementines

M&Ms are candy bars here 

Uncle Toby makes Cheerios. Who knew?

I was able to prepare a chicken veggie pasta dish at home. It was nice to have a meal at home after so many days of living in hotels and traveling. It felt really good to be together as a family in our new country. It was a good first day in Wellington. All good except for the fact that I have a toothache. It started last Sunday and we have been on the move traveling until now. I have never experienced a toothache before, but it is pretty bad. I have shots of pain through my jaw and head all the time. Sadly, I will have to find a dentist soon. Definitely not the most enjoyable way to get to know a city.

Mally's first home cooked meal. It looks happy to have her eat it.