Goodbye Australia, hello New Zealand!

Early morning, up at 3am and off to the airport. Caught our flight to Brisbane (delayed) and ran to make our connection to Auckland. A few glitches - Zach lost his little pouch with his money and air pods on the airplane. Bill was annoyed because he saw Zach put it in his pocket, but then Zach and Mel started wrestling in the seat while we were all waiting to de-plane and yep, you guessed it, it apparently fell out. Anyway, he realized it as we were beginning our sprint to catch our next plane. Now here is the million-dollar question - Do you a) continue on running to make your flight and drag the child crying behind you or do you b) let him go back and ask to get back on the plane and get them. Well, I had to pee. So did Mel, so we opted for b. We have no shortage of headphones on this journey with 4 pairs of Bose and 4 pairs of air pods, but we are all in our groove and use them daily. Zach listens to books and podcasts to chill, and before bed so they are a critical item. Missing a flight critical? Probably not, but like I said, I had to pee. I avoid getting up on the airplane at all costs because let’s be honest - the bathrooms on airplanes - there is just not enough Purell.

Headphones and 10 Australian dollars found, we proceeded on our route only to get hung up in passport control. Zach was selected to have his passport reviewed. Mel and I headed to the gate where people were still boarding, and Bill and Zach made it with a few minutes to spare. Of course, Zach found one of those spare minutes to take his 10 Australian dollars to buy a water and a kit-kat from the vending machine. I mean as far as he was concerned, no sense in taking that money to New Zealand!

We arrived at our Airbnb around 5pm and it is great. I think you all know how I feel about Airbnbs, but I chose very carefully and so far, we have been really lucky. Fingers crossed we continue to be. Dropped our bags and explored the neighborhood a bit—very lively, lots of people out eating dinner and having drinks. Looks like it is going to be a fun stay. We headed back to the apartment about 8pm and we finally we have a washing machine so already running a load of laundry.

New Zealand is 3 hours ahead of Australia so hopefully the time difference will help get everyone to bed soon since we’ve all been up since 3am!

I see a lot of green, no sheep yet . . . .

A very tired kid eating his sushi for dinner. Happy to be here.

View from our balcony. Staying in the heart of downtown.