For K2

This is Zach's message for his nursery class back at Greenwich House in England.

Hello Mrs Reynolds and everyone back at Greenwich House!

We are settled in well in New Zealand now.  We live in the northern part of Auckland, where we can see the city from parts of where we live - an area called The Palms.  I really like driving into the city over the bridge - that's the view on the postcard I sent you.  The biggest building is called the Sky Tower.

There are lots of beaches near us with good parks to play in.  This is me on Milford Beach.  The island in the background is called Rangitoto (said Rang-ee-toe-toe).  It's a dormant volcano so hasn't erupted in a very very long time.  There's a harbour at Milford so I got to see lots of boats coming in and out here.

There are lots of beaches near us with good parks to play in.  This one below is called Browns Bay and there is a big adventure playground there too and a really good ice cream shop.




























I miss coming to Greenwich House, but I start at Kindergarten tomorrow and I'm excited to make some new friends.

Love from Zachary

For Class 2B

This is a message for Leilani's old class, 2B, at Kidgate.

Hello!  I am in New Zealand now and love living here.  The plane journey was exciting but very very long!  Here are some pictures of the place where we live.  It's called the North Shore and is the northern part of Auckland, over the harbour bridge.  We can see the main city as we drive to school.  That's what the picture is on the postcard I sent.  The tallest building is called the Sky Tower.  We live in an area called The Palms - here are some pictures taken from the deck at our house:

This is one of the beaches near us, called Mairangi Bay.  The island in the distance is called Rangitoto (said Rang-ee-toe-toe).  It's a dormant volcano.  There are lots of volcanoes around where we live, but none of them have erupted for a very very long time.

Practicing my handwriting in the sand!  This is at another beach called Castor Bay.

This is Me and my little brother Zach at a beach called Browns Bay.  We went after school today.

I'm wearing my new school uniform in this picture.  My school is called Sunnynook Primary and my class is Room 15 with Mrs Findlay-Clarke.  We have shorts and T-shirt and a hat as our uniform.  We quite often take our shoes off at school and a lot of kids walk all over the place barefoot, even walking home or to the shops.
While it's warm we have our assembly outside on the playground.

This is part of the playground off the beach at Browns Bay.

I'm really enjoying living here, but miss all my friends back in England too.  I hope you're all having a good time!

Love from Leilani x

THE MOVE: Update no. 3

The Flight

Actually the flight wasn't too bad.  We had a fairly short one to Dubai.  Kids slept a little, I didn't.  Had 3.5 hours to wait in Dubai then back on a plane for a very long time.... From Dubai to Auckland was a total of around 20 hours, including one stop at Brisbane for about an hour to refuel the plane.

The kids were really good.  They slept a fair bit, didn't play up too much, didn't have any major tantrums and mostly just enjoyed watching their own tv (which they thought was fantastic!) or played with the goody bags the airline gave us.  I don't think any of them even looked at the things I'd packed to keep them entertained on the flight.  The staff were really helpful and the food was good.  I was especially impressed with the kids meals, that had, as well as the hot meal, lots of little things with it like bread rolls and snack things so there was always something the kids wanted to eat.  They also got a little snack box with each meal that had things like a chocolate bar, packet of raisins, fruit, cake, etc.  Only thing was that eating was quite difficult with Tilly on one of our laps as well as a tray of our food and a tray of hers!

We arrived at Auckland - and all the kids were fast asleep.  Tilly had actually only just fallen asleep about 30 mins before.  So we left them all sleeping across the seats while everyone else got off the plane, then we could better manage them being sleepy and all our bags without trying to get past people too.  We went and collected what felt like a million bags (3 airport trolleys stacked high...) and made our way through immigration controls and customs with no problems at all.  Then finally out to a sunny Auckland afternoon where Sam and Sheri were waiting for us :)

I got a total of about 3 hours sleep over the entire journey, we all got to bed at a fairly normal time, even though a little bit early, and that really helped with the jet lag.  We were all pretty much back to normal after about 3 days.

Sam and Sheri took us over to our house where Adam was waiting, and it 's very blue.  It's fine to have a favourite colour, but you don't have to put it everywhere...  The outside, the carpets, furniture, curtains, some walls, kitchen units and dining chairs are all blue.  It's a bit much!

THE MOVE: Update no. 2

Okay, so I sold our stuff by any means possible.  I bought the plane tickets about 2 weeks after Adam left so had a date set - 23rd February - for leaving the UK.  That was in Feb half term, so Lani and Zach could finish up at school and nursery nicely.  We had to move out on 15th Feb, so I spent the last week of the school half term staying with Karen and Eric (the lovely in-laws).  We moved to theirs on Fri 11th Feb so I could have the weekend to clean the house and make sure we got the bond back.  And my goodness, did we clean...

During the week Mo and Maddelene came to help because they couldn't come on the saturday and did a fabulous job of the windows (Mo) and the main bathroom and downstairs toilet (Maddelene).  On Saturday I had an awesome team of helpers - Gail, Harold and Kinnear Elliot, Aaron, Janine, Sandy, Keeley, Karen and Alastair.  They did a fantastic job helping me clean all through the house, taking stuff to the charity shops and tidying up the garden.  Then on Monday I cleaned the carpets and had the window cleaner do the outside top windows.  I had the inspection on the Tuesday and it went really well, the only thing they weren't happy with was that the carpets hadn't come out too well, but everything else was actually in better condition than when we'd moved in.  In the end the landlady agreed with the letting agent that that weighed out the fact that the carpets had gotten worse and we got our full bond back - yay!  Couldn't have done it without everyone's help though, they were amazing.

During those final few days I was also calling round utility companies and the like to cancel things and finalise bills etc etc.  But after that inspection on Tues I felt like quite a weight had been lifted and I could relax a little.

I went to the cinema to see The Kings Speech that night with Sandy and Janine to celebrate.  Excellent film.  The next couple of days were spent seeing people to say goodbye.  Dad came up on Friday night and on Sat morning we packed up his people carrier with all our stuff - there was A LOT.  But we managed to squeeze it all in - just!

Got to Mom and Dad's in Reading and then the great re-packing began to do the final sort through that could include Mom and Dad's luggage and their weight allowance.  The lounge was covered with our stuff and I was constantly sorting through, weighing, re-packing, re-weighing etc.  It took a good 2-3 days to sort out.  Then on Wed Jess and I drove to the airport with the car full of our luggage and Mom, Dad and the kids went on the train (couldn't all fit in with the luggage as well!).

We got to the airport pretty early and got all the baggage through without any problems - total of 8kgs over the limit for all 6 of us, but it was allowed without any question.  Then came the really hard part of saying goodbye to Jess :(

Next update to follow shortly... (it's a big story to tell and I don't have the energy to do it all at once!)