4 continents, 8 planes, 4 trains, 8 cities, 12 bags, and 3 weeks later we are finally getting settled in our new home in Wellington. We arrived at about midnight NZ time, after losing two hours in our short hop from Oz. Our apartment is right in downtown Wellington - quite a different experience for our suburban lifestyles.
When we arrived we went through immigration than customs. Immigration was quick but I was quite concerned at customs. You had to declare any food (we didn't have any) and any wood products. Our Australian boomerangs were easy to hand over, but then mackenzie volunteered that she had bought a tiny tiger in Foshan. They, of course, needed to see it. I looked over our 8 checked bags and 4 carry-ons, each stuffed to the gills, and envisioned us searching each one of them for the stupid tiger. Fortunately, Mackenzie remembered that it was in her new coat pocket, and I happened to remember where that was. My worst fear, of dirty clothes, bras and underwear scattered about the Wellington airport as we searched for a 3 inch tiger, were not realized.
Our apartment is cute - very modern. The building has a framing shop downstairs and only 3 apartments - we are on the second floor. one of the main city arteries is our front street. There is a delightful bakery two doors down, a grocery store across the street and about 50 cafes and restaurants in the surrounding 2 blocks. Many of them appear to be Indian or Malasian, but with a smattering of others incuding British pubs and sushi.
We are just a block from the harbor, which is beautiful. We walked along the lengthy pedestrian park this afternoon - its stretches about 2/3 of the way around. There is a small skateboard park near us and people using the park for biking, in-line skating and skateboarding. There don't appear to be as many rules here - few "No" signs (no skateboarding, no swimming etc). And everyone seems to get along. We walked along the shore behind Te Papa, the national museum, and watched a group of teenage boys jump repeatedly into the water. A small crowd gathered and watched and cheered as they climbed to higher and higher points to jump. I don't know how deep it is but I hope they knew what they were doing. Everyone emerged still able to walk.
When not watching the walkers, skaters, skateboarders and divers, you can gaze off into the harbor, which is ringed by beautiful hills, just like you see in every movie made in the last ten years. It really is quite lovely.
Kiwis seem to be very open, warm and friendly people. We haven't had a lot of interaction yet, but so far so good, although we occassionally have to ask them to repeat themselves to understand their brand of English.
It is very casual here, perhaps because we are at the height of summer, or perhaps they are just casual all the time. I always thought of florida as quite casual, but they may have us beat. The girls were shocked to see people barefoot and shirtless in the grocery store.
The girls are getting a little anxious about starting school - what it will be lke, what uniforms will be like ,will they make any new friends. Today we walked the 20-30 minutes to the school. It is a nice walk but part of it is up a very steep hill. We'll all be in great shape after 6 months of that hill! No one was there because they are on break now, so it didn't ease their concerns any.
I may start a new blog on life in Wellington. But for now, here are a few thoughts on our journey so far:
Travel and Immigration:
Britain had the longest and slowest lines by far,Hong Kong was in second. I wonder if it took years of British training to slow them down, because mainland China was extremely quick both times we entered.
France barely looked at anything and Australia seemed far more concerned about food entering the country than who the people were. New Zealand was concerned about wood, as I mentioned, and has stern warnings about declaring all food or facing dire consequences.
As to airlines, we decided we definitely favor the Asian airlines. They have much better service and food. The worst was US Air.
Places
To my surprise, I think we all enjoyed Paris the most. Part of it was the food, but also the ease of travel, the things to do and see and the welcoming people (despite what you may have heard.)
As a bit of an anglophile, I was thrilled to finally visit England. I have always wanted to go - even had plane reservations once, but then I met a horse named spook and had to cancel my summer plans. We enjoyed staying outside of the main tourist section and thought Easling was a cute little town with the butcher and the baker. I think it felt more like being in England than just being in a hotel in London.
China was interesting on several levels. It was interesting for David and I to compare Beijing to our visit 8 years ago - we thought it had changed a lot and had become more open and cleaner. Foshan was an important experience for all of us, particularly Veronica, to get a sense of where she was from. We enjoyed Hong Kong and could have spent more time there.
I wish we had the opportunity to see more of Australia or perhaps have visited after we were settled in NZ. I, for one, was a little tired by the time we got there and wasn't looking for adventure. I would like to see the outback and non-urban areas.
It was quite an adventure to hop from one city to the next, exploring Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall, the Foshan ancestral temple and all the places in between. It was interesting watching the girls conquer airport security like pros and hop on subways like they had been doing it all their lives. I wonder how this will work into their childhood memories. My favorite moments were when they were working together, like when they held hands as our first plane took off. Like most kids, they aren't used to 24/7 with just family, no friends and few distractions like tv. Most of the time we've all gotten along very well, and given each other a few "grumpy minutes" when anyone got overstressed.
Last night the girls made a delightful spaghetti dinner for us all. We all toasted our succesful trip and began planning our new life here for the next 6 months. I can't wait!
I hope you stay with us as we explore Wellington and as much of New Zealand as we can.
