We Have arrived!

We have arrived and have been living the NZ life for just over a week now!

We left England on the 20th of October and flew into Auckland arriving last saturday morning at the unearthly hour of 6am! The flight was fine and thankfully we incurred no charges for exceeding the baggage allowances for any of our internal/domestic flights!

Paul and Laura met us in Auckland...looking very bleary eyed! Unfortunately it was raining but we managed to brave the rain and have a jam packed day (to ward off the jet lag!) We were introduced formally to the New Zealand way of life by partaking in Brunch, which was fantastic! Pancakes with bacon syrup and banana! Yummy.....in the most delightful cafe. We then headed up Mt Eden, hwever we didn't last long due to the howling wind and driving rain! Incidently not what we were thinking! NORCOM guys....does this make you feel better!

We finally made it back to Paul and Lauras, they gave us enough time to have a shower, then it was off into Auckland to wander through the shops and to head up the skytower(see photos above!)! Which was very cool! We then went out to Mission Bay with Rich and Kath (some friends of paul and lauras and now after the weekend, ours too!) for a wander, great coffee and movenpick ice cream. For anyone that has visited Laura and Pauls blog you will know that we are now members of an institution! Homeward bound in the evening for hells pizza and a film! And sleep by 9pm!

Sunday was chilled, Paul went off to work (church!) and we all relaxed. Lunch was fab, we all went to Rich and Kaths, it was great to spend time with them and get to know them. We wandered in the Domain, a huge park with beautiful trees and forest walks plus the botanic gdns with gorgeous orchids in them (beck will email the piccies!) By now the sun had arrived and we were wandering in T-shirts, but this is nothing compared to the weather on bank holiday monday, bikinis on the beach! Oh yes we spent the day at Bethells beach, soaking up the sunshine and playing touch rugby! We met up with a load of guys from St Paul's and had a picnic. It was really great fun!

In the evening we headed out to Mission Bay again to have fish and chips at the best fish and chip place in auckland. They were scrumptious! So so tasty! I'm looking forward to more of that over the coming months!

We have now left Auckland (we were sad to leave paul and laura, we had such a wonderful time but we'll be visiting them again I am sure!) and we are staying with our friends Neil and Nat in Rangiora. Rangiora/ Christchurch is our final destination. We have been enjoying catching up and spending time with them! It has been a great few days and the sunshine has been awesome, my tan is developing already! On thursday we visited Hanmer Hot Springs where you can sit in the natural thermal pools whilst being surrounded by huge mountains! Apparently we must go back in the winter when there is snow on the ground! It was so good, I could have stayed forever!

We are now hitting reality, Dan starts work on tuesday and I will begin the great appt and job hunt. It is very exciting if not a little daunting but we will keep you updated on our progress!

Sorry there are no photos as yet, we need to get linked up with broadband! Hopefully it will not be too long!

Would love to hear from people so please drop us a line emmaanddanandrews@hotmail.com

See ya!