The Move – Part 4

The Auckland airport has two separate terminals for international flights and domestic flights. We arrived at the international terminal but needed to catch our next (and final) flight to Palmerston North in the domestic terminal. We had two options: take a bus there (and unload and load all our stuff for a two minute ride) or walk there following a green line outside in the rainy, winter weather in our short sleeved shirts. We chose the latter for the sake of keeping the kids in the stroller and not having to rearrange our carry-ons any more than we already had. We walked to the domestic terminal and besides being cold and rainy, it wasn’t too bad. First of all, it was 4:00 am and no one was really out there, so we were able to walk as fast as we wanted without being hit by cars or running into other people. Second, we could kind of see some mountains in the distance so we were trying to take in the scenery while we shuffled. Everything looked so foreign and interesting, so we were definitely looking all around during our walk.

We made it to the domestic terminal, but this is where our journey stopped being so smooth. We were never told that we would have an issue with our carry-ons when we spoke to Air New Zealand before our trip. So when we checked into our last flight, we were in for a big surprise when they told us that we had to check everything in, including Ellie’s car seat and the double stroller. At this point in the trip, the kids were definitely needing to run around and get their energy out (rightfully so, they had been amazing for the first 28 hours, we just had about two hours to go). Since we checked in the stroller, we had no way of containing the kids, so they just let loose and kept running into foot traffic. In our favor, the flight was delayed, so we had to wait a bit in the terminal. If it had not been delayed, we probably would’ve missed our flight because of the time it took us to get our baggage all sorted out. I thanked Jesus for that one. That wait for our flight was absolutely rough, though. The little bit of energy I mustered on the 14-hour flight was depleted after all we had to do with customs and our baggage, and all I wanted to do was sit. Matt was amazing, because he ran after the kids for a bit to give me a chance to rest.

Finally, around 8:30 am (the original scheduled arrival time in Palmerston North) our plane was ready to board. This part of the experience was actually pretty neat, because instead of going through a tunnel to get to the plane, we walked right out onto the tarmac and climbed a set of stairs to board our plane (it was a tiny prop plane). The interior was about the size of a school bus. The flight was only an hour long, but felt the longest of them all. Ellie wasn’t strapped into a car seat, so keeping her still was a challenge – especially during takeoff and landing. Landon was bored so he cried because there was no TV screen on the seat in front of him and all our electronics were dead at that point. Landing was pretty neat, because on the way down we just saw fields filled with sheep and cows and the most majestic mountains you can imagine. We were enamored by our new surroundings and when we touched down, the reality set in that we were “home”.

Matt’s boss, Bevan, greeted us at our gate. He brought along another man who drove a B&M truck that would transport all of our luggage to our next destination: the Airbnb. Funny story, the truck drove off because we thought we had gathered everything and thank goodness someone pointed out (I honestly can’t remember who!) that we didn’t collect our mountain bikes. I would have been so mad if we dragged those things all the way across the world, just to leave them behind at the airport! Once we gathered all our things, we installed the car seats into Bevan’s car and headed to our Airbnb. We put our bags away and got situated before we left again, this time heading to B&M’s office to meet some of Matt’s new coworkers and get him all situated work-wise. They gave him his work phone, he met with payroll, etc. Once we were finished, Bevan let us take a company vehicle to use while we settled in until we had our own car. We ran some errands and, a few hours later, went home to our Airbnb. Around 4:00 pm the kids went down for a nap, so we decided to nap with them. Yeah…naw (as Kiwis like to say), we didn’t wake up for the rest of the day. Instead, we woke up at 2:00 am ready to start our day. Whoops!

So there you have it. That is the story of our long journey from the United States to New Zealand. It wasn’t easy and we had to endure a lot to get here, but it was absolutely worth it, worth everything we went through to make it happen. That being said: I have lots more to tell, and many more posts to come about what we’ve been up to since we’ve been here.

With Love,

The Cullums