We're here!!! Can't believe it but we are here in Aucland, the city of sails and have installed ourselves in our new home.

The packers arrived at 8:30 and the truck came just 30 minutes later. Everything was loaded up and we had gone by 10:30 AM which was just great. We were all excited and played load music all the way to Taupo where we stopped for lunch. On the way we stopped at Mangaweka, a very small town but with a very cool tearooms....it's a plane!

We had lunch with Nigel's youngest sister and husband and the boys got to ride on the back of Darryl's Motorcross bike. They thought it was super fun even if their Dad was freaking out at the speed (he really wasn't going that fast). Then we drove the remaining 3 hours to Auckland and it was a grumpy time. Everyone had had enough of being in the car and it was sticky hot so it made for a grumpy trip. By the time we arrived at the SIM guest house we were tired and hungry. A good feed of Fish 'n Chips settled the grumps.

We went through the hosue on Sunday afternoon and all was given the go ahead for us to move in the following morning. We didn't get the keys until 2PM Monday but that gave us time to clean the outside of the house and do some gardens. We whizzed through and cleaned the rest of the house and then the following day prepared for the packers to arrive. Sadly it rained but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm. We slept our first night in our house on Tuesday night and it was nice to wake up and not have to go anywhere.

I was feeling all excited about the unpacking. I was doing really well and getting through the 70 odd boxes we had. Nige had started work on the Wednesday so I was really motivated to surprise him with a big hole in the unpacking. When he came home he brought with him our 11 suitcases that we had been storing in Auckland since our return to NZ in September. They filled the big hole that I had made and made it look like I had done nothing. I was so discouraged! It took me much of the next day to even motivate myself to do anything.

I did set the goal of having everything unpacked by Sunday evening which we have managed to do. It is nice to have a home for even little things and I am enjoying popping out to the shops to buy little things to make our home more manageable....a basket here, some cooking utensils there.

All in all the move has gone well and I am thankful to God for allowing us this time to settle before I and the boys get thrown into work and school. The beach and swimming pools are just a few metres down the road (well the beach is more like a few kilometres) but it is all so close and we are having fun popping down to the water to cool off. The weather has finally picked up and I have even been able to get my washing dry which has been so hard this past week.

The internet is on, people have my new phone number and are calling, there is food in the cupboards (another post I think) and we are living happily in Auckland. Praise God.