Friday, 26 October
Life has been a whirlwind for all four of us. We are trying to find our way in our new world. Strange to be in a town where we don’t know anyone. Not a soul. Fortunately, everyone we meet is curious and welcoming.
We flew Bangkok to Auckland and then Auckland to Queenstown, just two days after flying Athens to Bangkok. We arrived on Friday, October 26. We never switched from European to Thai time. By the time we arrived in New Zealand all four of our biological clocks were haywire. Somehow the jetlag was much more challenging coming from Europe than the U.S. The first night we all slept. The next six nights it seemed like at least one of us and sometimes several were wandering around the apartment. Lying in bed wide-eyed watching each hour tick slowly by is so frustrating. One night I rolled over and had a weird sense someone was looking at me in the dark. I could make out a shape kneeling over me. Liam in a frantic whisper announced, “It is 2 and I haven’t fallen asleep yet!” I took him back to his room, tucked him and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. But it was like Liam passed the baton to me, because I never fell back to sleep. Ambien is the best stuff but at 3am, I always have the dilemma of whether I want to be groggy until midmorning. Eventually we just all got up early and had an exhausted and grumpy day, but all our clocks seemed to reset to NZ time.
As the plane touched down in Queenstown, Liam announced to me, and the whole plane, in his clear and hopeful voice, “We’re home!” Hearing his acceptance of this new and unknown world awaiting him outside the plane, combined with the fatigue of 20+ hours of traveling, undid me. I just burst into tears.
Once the plane landed, however, there was no more time for tears. We walked down the airplane steps, across the tarmac relishing the cool Otago wind, and into the terminal. A Honda representative was waiting with our new car and our bank rep was there with an NZ check to pay for it. We drove out of the airport with our Honda and carry-ons. Our luggage didn’t make the tight connection in Auckland. We didn’t care. We were in New Zealand!
Now that the jetlag has passed, I think I am suffering from season-lag. Halloween came. I wanted to make pumpkin pie and carve jack-o-lanterns. Halloween has always signaled the time to prepare for winter. I keep expecting darkness before 5pm. Instead the world screams spring! And nothing is subtle about spring here in NZ. The world seems to be unfolding and melting and baaing. The pastures are the intense neon green of new grass and full of shorn sheep and leaping lambs. The sun doesn’t set until after 9pm. Trees are budding and bright pink cherry blossoms line the roads and dot the pasture edges. As we approach Christmas, the weather should continue to warm and the days will grow longer. The topsy-turvy seasons are truly hard to for my body to accept. A funny side note is that Starbucks in Queenstown must get all its seasonal promotions direct from the US. As the weather warms and I want an iced coffee, Starbucks is decked out in snowflakes and is promoting gingerbread lattes.
We left the airport and drove straight to Fergburger in Queenstown for messy, yummy hamburgers. Then we headed over the Crown Range for Wanaka. While in Athens we found a great apartment, The Hillview Apartment, to rent from the wonderful Bunting family that moved to Wanaka from England just a couple of years ago. We spent Saturday washing clothes and getting settled. Having a kitchen to cook was a luxury after being in hotels. The boys were so happy to just hang out, especially when they met Cameron, age 9, who lived in the house right across the street.
In fact, watching how delighted Liam and Colin were to have friends again, Doug and I decided that we would enroll the boys in school as soon as possible. Colin’s comment as we rolled into Wanaka from the airport had been, “I can’t wait to meet some kids because I am tired of reading all the time.” Good point, Colin!
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