Setting off

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Plans were made, but where to start? We were going to be away from Europe at Christmas, and also hadn’t been to see family in the UK that summer, so we went on quite a detour before heading south.

We left home on December 1^st and set off the the exotic village of Nørre Aaby in Western Fyn. Here we did a pretend Christmas with family, before flying out to the UK the following day for a week in Wales and England. Packing for summer and winter turned out a bit tricky, so most of the time was spent indoors playing games, drawing a being creative. Time with family also means the opportuneity for Nick and I to go off for a few runs together, something that hasn’t really happened since before we had Ollie. The beautiful coastline around St. David’s with the low December sun was the perfect setting.

We also needed to balance the amount of presents given vs the amount that we could take with us to NZ. We left ended up leaving a rather large bag in Worthing to be picked up in the spring. Luckily both out children are fairly modest, when it comes to presents… Especially Alba. She wrote a letter to Santa wishing that she could magic everything in the world, and the magic would never run out(!). Okay, then J

So with all the magic in the world packed up, we headed for warmer weather. First bump in the road was the lack of obtained New Zealand Electronic Travel Autority. We were not allowed to check in! I was sure I checked the VISA rules when we booked the fligts this summer, so was a bit surprised by this. We put on our best poker faces and in the very most relaxed manner quickly filed the online application from a mobile phone for the 4 of us, while standing next to the check in counter at Heathrow, reassuring Ollie and Alba that everything was just fine. The process was easy and we got instant confirmation of the application with the automated message, that they would get back to us after between 10 minutes and 72 hours. Take off was in 2,5 hours. We were asked to just wait… So 10 mitnutes passed and nothing happened. 30 minutes, still nothing… 45 mins, and we got comfirmation for Ollie, Alba and my application. We thought Nick’s would be just a few more minutes, but after another 15 minutes with no result, the very nice check in crew called a friend, and had it pushed trough manually. We were then checked in and allowed boarding.

The rest of the journey was a cruise. Second bump came when picking up the car, and not having an international drivers licence. That cost us each a translation fee and an extra hour's wait. No panic, though. Just a mental note of checking little details like visa and driver licence requirements next time we travel. It’s such a rookie mistake, and as a former travel consultant, I really should have known better! But everything worked out, and we were SO ready to go exploring. First stop: Devonport, Auckland.

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Photos

Lower Moor
Louise (Nick's sister) bought another property in St. David's. Like the others, this one requires a lot of work, but it's an awesome place and an inspiring project in the making. The plan is to grow local produce to sell to local people and restaurants.