Yule [b]log

Well ho ho ho, merry christmas one and all!

Here we are, approaching the end of Christmas day, and yours hasn’t even begun yet … how very odd! We are at the furthest possible point from the UK, truly the other side of the world, celebrating in Auckland. We’re also trying to keep our eyes open.

The flight from Santiago in Chile was scheduled to be 13 hours, but the 4 hour delay meant it started at some unearthly hour like 3am. Not the most fun, but the kids handled it in their usual inimitable style: Rhys fell asleep face down on the floor, Jenna played with a lovely little girl called Clare, having so much fun she lost her voice, and Rowan fell asleep sitting up about 2 minutes before we finally boarded! They are infinitely better at this sort of thing than we, who were tetchy from not being able to smoke anywhere … we have decided this is unhumane torture. People are stressed and fidgety before flights anyway, and to incarcerate them in a hermetically sealed unit where you could drink yourself into a stupor – but not be able to smoke anywhere – AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

Still, the delay actually did us a favour (as well as our lungs). It meant a) the kids fell asleep before take off b) we didn’t fall asleep for a couple of hours, so adjusted better to the time difference and c) we landed at 8.00am rather than 4.00am!

It was almost instantly fabulous to arrive in NZ. They drive on the left, which is going to completely throw us when we pick up our campervan in a few weeks, after being on the other side, with gearstick on the otherside, for 4 months. We drove through the suburb of Epsom, complete with the Epsom bowls club. When we arrived, we had three parcels and some Christmas cards! The weather was about 17 degrees, mild, pleasant, and Auckland, it turns out, is a really great city.

The city of sails, it is almost entirely surrounded by water, with some lovely beaches. The skyline is low and dominated by the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere – the SkyTower. Perhaps the city of sails should be renamed the city of adrenaline junkies, as every corner seems to offer a new thrill, including a massive 192m base wire jump off the Sky Tower! Naturally, Rhys wanted to do it. But this time, we put our feet down.