We have arrived!!

So we did make it here and wow what a trip. We will have to figure something for coming home at Christmas because I am not sure we can handle all those lay overs again! But everything went as smooth as possible with the exception of arriving in Auckland. We went through customs... fine.. but then we got our bags. We maxed out our (American allowance) by taking 6 bags each almost 90lbs, but as we got our boarding passes for the flight from Auckland to Palmerston North (Palmy) the NZ limit is 32 kgs so the check in lady told us we were going to have to rearrange our stuff. We had been traveling for about 30 hours at that point and we (especially Cas) were frustrated. We called all the airlines prior to packing and we were reassured that whatever the Indy regulations were that would carry on for the entire trip. Of course the lady kept saying that the bags couldn’t be over 32 kgs and then of course being the American I am I asked how many lbs is that because I had no clue if we were close or not. Zac very kindly gave me the formula, but of course that didn’t go over all that well at that moment. In the end we got all our bags on the plane and we didn’t even have to pay any additional charges for Air New Zealand – I think she just got tired of us and let us go through.

But when we got to Palmy our bags were the last ones off the plane and the Air New Zealand employee that took the bags off the plane came in to the airport to lectures us (just Cas) about the weight and went on and on about it (for like 5 minutes). Of course I just nodded and smiled. So if you come to NZ do not bring a bag over 32 kg (later I found out 70lbs) for luggage. Other than that small experience everyone has been delightful!

Palmy is very nice and Massey Campus is very pretty. Once we have internet at our apartment that will make this much easier and we can post more pictures!!



This is how we are currently using our spare bedroom, more pictures to come on the apartment. This is the city center, a great place to sit under a tree and read a book - that is what I have been doing since I am currently obsessed with the Twilight Series. The city center again.