Auckland

Dirk serenading us all in his own, inimmitable way.
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It took as longer than expected to arrive in Auckland and we arrived at Belinda and Dirk’s house after lunch. I was so excited I was an even worse navigator than normal. I saw them from the top of the hill as we were driving down and I couldn’t believe how much the Alyssa and Liam have changed since we saw them last. They are such nice kids and Megan and Luca have had a ball emptying the toy boxes and playing with them. We have had an amazing Christmas, with Belinda’s parents Wilf and Jan, and Dirk’s parents Anne and Hermann, his brother Paul and his wife Debs and their son Matthew. Belinda cooked a yummy feast and too much wine was drunk, drunken songs were sang and we had a brilliant time. They are all amazing people and I am so glad we could share our first Christmas in New Zealand with them. The Develters have made us feel so welcome in their home and we are all very grateful for that and it'll be great when we can have them to stay over with us.

Arriving in Auckland over the harbour bridge.
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Tomorrow we return to Christchurch and an empty house with no furniture for a while as our things will take even more time to arrive, but I won’t go into that at this moment in time. It will be a little bit strange after the excitement of the last months to get back into our normal life of work and so on, especially as the kids are on holiday for another month and a bit. I reckon this is the true test now. I expect to become a little bit weird by approaching strangers in odd places and asking them if they would like to be our friends!!

Some yummy BBQ for dinner.
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Anyway….

In short, we have had the most amazing time ever and the best start to our life in New Zealand we could ever have hoped for. We are all extremely happy. The future beckons.