L & E  Baird Web Design 2008

Our flight touched down at the Auckland International Airport shortly before 2.40pm on Sunday 14th August 2005, taking the one stop and time difference into account we arrived two days after we left the UK.

We left the airplane with matchstick eyes and in a state of complete exhaustion. The three children had been wonderful throughout the whole journey, the penalty of keeping them amused was indeed lack of sleep but they could have created the whole time, they were great. We did try to take turns to sleep but it was very hard when you know your other half is also very tired and what brief sleep we did manage to gain was of little quality. However despite our feelings at that time we had arrived and we had to concentrate on getting quickly through New Zealand customs and having a good meal and a very good nights sleep at the hotel.

New Zealand Custom’s was relatively easy, all our documents were in order and we had a copy of Lance’s accepted job offer so we were given a six-month visitor’s visa. I have to fill you in a bit here, as at that point we did not have a work permit/visa to enter New Zealand as we had hoped. Due to our Canadian holiday and the short space of time afterwards we did not have enough time to finalise Lance’s work permit/visa before leaving. The agency in New Zealand informed us that it would be acceptable to finalise the paperwork when we arrived. Unfortunately the agency had once again given us the wrong information and it turned out that it would take a while longer to sort things out so more on that shortly!

Our hotel offered a courtesy shuttle service for guests and they promptly collected us from the airport within ten minutes of us phoning to say we had arrived. It was such a relief to have a sit down and a nice hot cup of tea, chill out and relax in our own company and space! I think not having freedom of space on such a long flight is very hard to cope with especially when you are used to being relatively free do what you please in your own home. It was around 3.30pm by then and our plan of attack for the evening was to have a short sleep and then go to have some food in the restaurant. Our plan of attack was about to go not quite as we planned or rather not at all as we planned. We woke up quite a few hours later, the children were all still fast asleep and we felt totally shattered, the new plan of attack was to forget about our grumbling tummies and go straight back to sleep. The next time any of us stirred was 9am the next morning; we had literally slept none stop for hours and we had worked up quite an appetite! After our sleep marathon we hastily got dressed, showered and headed for the breakfast room. The staff could not believe how much cereal, toast, croissants and anything else edible we consumed. We did feel rather piggy so explained that we had had little food for quite a few hours and we were very hungry! After our breakfast feast we felt much brighter and ready for the internal flight to Gisborne.

The previous day we had stepped of a huge Boeing 747, so we were rather shocked when we were directed out onto the tarmac towards our Gisborne flight, a very small little aircraft in comparison. The flight itself only took an hour but it was a rough ride, the craft was so small you could hear every bang and squeak; the turbulence was rather awful although the craft flew low enough for us to see the land below so close, it was nerve wracking.

Eventually we descended into Gisborne airport and we were surprised how small the airport was but nevertheless we had finally arrived at our new home. It took less than five minutes to de board our toy plane and meet Lance’s new boss who was there to meet us along with a work friend who had lived in Gisborne for thirty years and was previously from Yorkshire, UK. I have to say here and Lance will agree, we could not quite believe the fact that they had lived in New Zealand all those years and still sounded like they had just arrived from the Yorkshire Dales, amazing!

 It was a short journey to our accommodation at the hospital that had been provided as part of the relocation package. A three-bedroom flat they called it but it was more like a detached bungalow that looked lovely from the outside with a massive grassed area for the children to play, we would enjoy it there! The huge feeling of relief of arriving and the luck of being allocated such nice accommodation left us as quickly as a bolting horse when the stable door is left open. We walked into a filthy dirty house, it needed a good clean before we could settle properly and that was the last thing we felt like doing.