Well, we made it. The Saturday and Sunday before we left were hectic! We were trying to put things away in the house, pack for a year and a half and say good-bye to people we care about! There wasn’t time to do any of that properly! We thought we were organized but no matter how well you prepare, things always come up that you hadn’t planned on! But, by Monday morning, October 16th, we left! Ready or not we were on our way!
We ended up leaving an hour earlier because John decided he had to buy a new pair of the running shoes he likes! Now why couldn’t he have done this last month or the month before? I don’t know. I guess it’s related to the way he goes Christmas shopping…..Christmas eve he panic’s and realizes he’d better get out and do his shopping! Buying his shoes on the way to the airport was actually not surprising to me!
On the way we stopped at Nikki’s house and said good-bye to her family. I hate good-bye’s but we really wanted to stop and we will definitely miss all of our family! Brandon dropped us off and quickly left as he was a little too emotional to hang around very long!
In short, our flight to San Francisco, and then on to New Zealand, was without incident. The best thing that happened was while waiting at the gate in California for our flight to Auckland. There was a big group of New Zealand kids there also waiting to catch the same flight home. Suddenly they started singing a beautiful Maori song. Their harmony was amazing and it filled the airport halls where people stopped, froze in place, and listened. Of course we were some of those people! W decided they must be a singing group from New Zealand. After their song ended all the young men started to perform a Maori chant. It kind of reminded me of the Haka but it was different. We loved it and everyone gave them a big cheer and loud clapping.
While standing in line to get on the plane I got talking to two of these young people and asked them if they were a singing group. They laughed and said no.
“We were chosen by our tribe, from different parts of the land, to go to America for a special educational experience, mostly in Silicon Valley.”
It was my turn to be surprised! They all were Maori and love the traditional songs of their culture. I am finding that they love to sing here and their singing was definitely a manifestation of that love. It was a real treat for us just before our long flight to a new land.
Suffice it to say that the flight was tiring, over 13 hours and even though it was during the night, it did not seem much shorter! Sleeping on a plane is not the easiest thing in the world to do! The most interesting thing about it is that we got on the plane Monday night and after watching movies and trying to sleep, got off the plane at 6:30 in the morning in Auckland. However, it was Wednesday morning and not Tuesday! I believe this is the closest I will ever come to “time travel! Not exactly the Star Trek Enterprise but pretty cool anyway!
President Walker and his wife met us at the airport and the office couple, the Stahle’s, drove us to our new apartment. The area office doctor’s wife was with them and she too came and helped us. They were all very kind and excited to get to know us. Of course that made us feel good!
When we got to our apartment we were pleased to see that it was in a gated and safe complex. The apartment is quite new, albeit very small! It has two bedroom and one bath but if the whole place is 800 square feet I would be surprised. After getting our luggage in the apartment, the office couple took us down the street to where we could get some milk, bread and eggs and a few things to get us started. We asked them if they would like to stop and get some lunch since we felt like it must have been about 2:00 in the afternoon by then and we were starving. They looked at us rather funny and reminded us that it was only 7:30 in the morning and nothing was open! Duh! We should have know that! Instead we went back to our apartment and ate some of the groceries we bought. We were grateful for the help we had in getting settled and are very thankful to have a nice place to live in. The only disadvantage is that neither John nor I have any place we can hide from each other here! Oh well, this is not new to us as we have lived in tiny apartments before!
The next few days consisted of getting settled and John catching the flu! Where he got it we don’t know but it ran it’s course and he managed to feel better after a couple of days. It was a good thing the President gave us these days to get settled before bringing us into the office for an interview. If John had to get the flu the timing was perfect! It would have been a big hassle on the plane!
Recovering from the flu, John was given a bottle of New Zealand’s favorite soft drink! L & P is the name of it and he was told it would do wonders for him! He did try it and yes, we both like it! Our first taste of something new and different!
All I can say now is that we are ready to go to work and anxious to get our assignment!
Mission to New Zealand 