After months of planning and dreaming, weeks of patiently (or impatiently) waiting for our visas, last minute flight purchasing, and the chaos of packing our house for renters- I am relieved to be settling in. We have a few more days before Danny starts working and I am by myself with the kids and 2-3 weeks before the kids are off to NZ schools and I am by myself.

We left for the airport in Louisville in the midst of a week long cold freeze at 1pm and after long lines through customs we arrived in our Airbnb in Auckland at 12pm to 78 degrees air temperature, a travel time of 29 hours.

We are staying in a suburb of Auckland called Mount Wellington in an Airbnb condo. Although it is not near any beaches or parks, there is a very large nice mall/shopping center within walking distance which has provided us with plenty of food choices, stores for necessities, and things to do as we adjust to our surroundings.

We have now been here two nights and while there’s been plenty of down time for the girls to watch She-Ra and Charles to play Fortnite with his OLOL school friends, it seems like we have already experienced a lot including new foods, a long and somewhat frustrating phone store experience to set up NZ phone service (not unlike the Apple store experiences in the US), shopping at Kmart (who knew Kmart had survived), doing laundry without a dryer, buying a car (surprisingly easy), the fog and irritability of jet lag, a child vomiting (likely viral gastroenteritis), and attending a local Catholic church service.

Our next challenges will be driving on the other side of the road, entertaining the kids while Danny is working, and moving into our more permanent rental in about a week. Today we are relaxing while Maria (and her caregiver) recovers from a night of emesis. Danny just left to get some food with Charles and Audrey and check out the public transportation. Tomorrow Danny’s NZ job as a psychiatrist through a hospital is having an orientation which interestingly our whole family has been invited to. We will likely test out the buses to get there since we don’t pick up our new used minivan until later that day.

I’m new to this blogging thing. Audrey is planning to write too. Not sure what people would be interested in reading but thought this would be a neat way to help stay connected to our friends and family back home. Let me know what you think!