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!