You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2007.
Our first week seems to have flown by, I guess mainly because we have had so much to do and it has kept us both busy. We have bought the essentials – toaster, kettle, microwave etc and Candi has been busy organising everything, so it almost looks like a proper home now.
Our priority now is getting our own car sorted out (we are hiring an old Mazda at the moment, which is a bit of a shed – it has already had clutch problems at some traffic lights in rush hour, which was far from ideal! And I thought my days of driving a crappy old rustbucket were over!). After a bit of a think, we have decided that Read the rest of this entry »
Joe and I went to look at a car auction yesteday morning, but it didn’t open and we gave up in the end. We expect this is because it is Easter, but there did seem to be quite a few cars there and could be worth a look some other time.
We went to the Queensgate shopping centre and ran around the Warehouse, buying basics like a toaster, kettle, ironing board etc. We had an overflowing trolley full of stuff, but it was very reasonably priced and didn’t break the bank.
We also went to the nearby BigSave and bought a coffee table and 2 chests of drawers – they are being delivered on Tuesday. We looked at sofabeds, but didn’t buy one – we don’t need one immediately as we don’t have anyone coming to stay just yet! But there is a good selection there, so we may go back.
We are thinking about hiring a car for a while, just until we buy one of our own. I will ring around a few places tomorrow and see what prices are like. It will be good to have our own transport, so we can do a bit of exploring!
We got to Heathrow in plenty of time for our flight – so early in fact, that we had to wait for the Air NZ check-in desk to open. We were taking full advantage of the generous baggage allowance (2 pieces of up to 23kgs each) so we were fully loaded and a bit apprehensive when our luggage was on the scales… As it turned out, we needn’t have worried – they were all over but it didn’t seem to matter. The heaviest bag was 29kg, but luckily we weren’t charged any extra (and didn’t have to frantically jettison unnecessary stuff to bring us under!). We also had 3 large-ish bags as hand luggage, as well as winter jackets so we definitely had our hands full going on to the flight.
The first leg, Heathrow to LA was only about half-full so we had an empty seat next to us, which was great as it meant we could spread out a bit. Sophie was very well behaved during the whole flight, she managed to sleep quite a lot and remained in a good mood, which helped our state of mind too! The Air NZ staff were extremely friendly and attentive, noticeably more so than the Emirates staff we had last time. The entertainment system wasn’t as good as Emirates, but there was still a good selection of movies. The ‘airshow’ channel, which shows distance flown, ETA and current location was more advanced than I have see before, it was a bit like Google Earth, with a 3D model globe and animated plane.
After hearing some horror stories about the LAX transfer lounge, we were expecting the worst, but as it turned out it wasn’t that bad. We got directed to the front of the line as we had a small child and had the once-over from a Customs official, then we had 2 fingerprints taken (index fingers of both hands) and a photo taken from a webcam-type camera. We then had to wait in the transit area for about an hour. It reminded me of a bus station or something similar - not much to see but there was free coffee, soft drinks and light snacks. Candi spread our jackets out and sat with Sophie on the floor while she played with her toys.
After a bit of a wait, our flight was called and we went back to the plane and took the same seats we had before. There were slightly more passengers on this leg, but the flight still wasn’t full and we kept the empty seat next to us too.
This leg of the journey felt much longer than the last, but I think that was mainly because it remained dark outside the plane and we only flew over ocean the entire time. Plus we were really tired by this point, but thankfully we all managed to get some more sleep.
When we arrived in Auckland, we had to clear Customs, claim our baggage and then check in for the domestic flight to Wellington. The Customs official was nice, he asked a few questions about how long we were staying for, whether I had work and somewhere to stay lined up, but apart from that there was no drama. He said “Welcome to New Zealand” and waved us through. We loaded up our trolleys with all our bags and trundled round to the Domestic check in desk. Apparently, it’s a 10 minute walk from the International terminal to the Domestic one, but we caught the bus instead and used the saved time to get coffees.
The internal flight to Wellington was even less crowded than the international ones we had just had – we had an entire row to ourselves, which meant I was able to scoot across the aisle to take some pictures. The sun was still quite low in the sky, so we got a great view of the NZ landscape below.
When we arrived in Wellington, there was a (large) Airport taxi waiting for us, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Joe and Susanne there as well. We said our hellos and all drove back to their house for much-needed showers!
We went up to the house we are renting to have a look around – there is some basic furniture in there now as well as a TV, DVD player and stereo.
Joe drove us to Horokiwi, which is the next hill along. I took some pictures looking back at our houses – ours seems very exposed, right on the top of the crest! I will be posting the pics soon.
Things are coming on nicely… last week the shippers came and packed up our stuff, then we had the cleaners round to do a ‘deep clean’. Turns out they didn’t go quite as deep as they should - they are coming back tomorrow morning to finish the job properly (I wasn’t happy with their efforts first time around and when you pay someone nearly £300 you expect a good job otherwise what’s the point?)
We spent Saturday with my parents and Sophie actually started crawling! It wasn’t entirely unexpected - she has been making the right sort of moves a lot recently, but we had been hoping she wouldn’t actually start until after the flight! Ah well, looks like we are really going to have our hands full on the way to NZ!
Today we had lunch with Lou, then went back to our house in Cholsey to do a few bits of tidying (Lou helped and looked after Sophie for a bit too). Then we went round to see Cindi for a bit.
We get ‘checked out’ from our Cholsey house tomorrow lunchtime - hopefully there won’t be any surprises and we can get most (if not all) of our deposit back. Every little helps when you’re between jobs!
After that, we travel to Epping to stay with Candi’s folks for a couple of days before we leave on Wednesday.
Anyway, if you’re thinking of contacting us once we get there, you may find this useful:
