leachio
30th March 2007, 10:45 AM
Hi all,
After 25hrs and 2 small kids we have made it to NZ!:raebanana We left UK at 4.30am on Mon 26th and travelled through various time zones and 2 lots of night and day (odd) and arrived in Auckland airport at 2230 on tues 27th march. Any tips for future family fliers??????????? Yeh, if u have an infant def book a child seat for them and take ur UK car seat on board, we also managed to secure a sky cot but Ella hated it and slept more in her car seat. We flew with Singapore Air & they were really helpfull. I gor some of the well known phenergen from the doc for Jack but never used it really, he got a bit fed up after 10hrs on 1st flight and I tried him with some then but he spat most of it out! He gave in after a bit of a screamin do and cuddled into dad for couple hrs. Poor little Ella had an awful landing to Singapore, her ears popped I think & she had a stinky & was beside herself with tiredness. Even I cried as I treid to console her, I told Dan I was not puttin the kids thru another 9hr flight. However they both perked up at singapore (lovely airport) To my relief the 2nd leg was a doddle, both kids &us had a good few hrs kip, we arrived in to very warm auckland evening.
Couldnt see to much on the way to Hamilton as it was dark but got the jist of the little wooden houses :laugh Our motel is fine for what we need and the owners are a hoot! Wed morn and we have brought the rain but boy is it still warm, or muggy as we say in Scotland! We made a couple of UK mates before we came and they have been a godsend, picked us up at the airport, came for us on wed and the kids played together, fed us some T and took us to see a rental property. We are now the proud renters of a 4bed detatched bungalow with en-suite and walk in wardrobe (just a big cupboard :laugh ) some sort of fruit tree apparently. We dont get it till 7th may tho, but sensibly thats not too bad cos our furniture arrives on the 11th, at least the motel has all the facilities we need. Dan goes off to Welly for 7wks mid april but is home 5wkends out of 7.
Thursday and still rainin, again still warm. We venture into town, open our ASB accounts, no probs at all, sort out our application for family assistance and are pointed in the direction of where to get community cards (med discount etc) and poss assistance with rent, although I doubt very much we will qualify, however we will ask for everything! Dan & kev go car hunting, think we are having a honda odyssey (??) its much bigger than Im used to and the cars here tend to be automatic with the gear stick on the steering wheel, I will have to find an empty car park and experiment. The kids are still getting thier body clocks adjusted and both nights so far we have been up at midnight and tried everythin to settle them again, managed it by 2-3am.
Fri (today) rain, but the sun is trying to break thru! Dan brought a car for us to see, yeh they just let him take it! Think we will go for it or one very similar, he's now popped to the rental agent to sign up for the house. Later we are invited to a BBQ, weather permitting! and Jack is looking forward to playing with kate & Kev's kids, she has put our name down for mums & toddlers and has a kindy for jack to attend.
So any big decisions yet? Prob not far to soon, it prob feels like we are on hol at the mo, Im glad with how quickly and easily things are to sort out and as soon as we get a car we can make some trips out like Steve & Jan have. Maybe in a few wks when we are still in a motel and I havent seen my daughter & parents for a while I may feel diff but we have decided to give it a good go for at least 2yrs then decide. Everyone really is incredibly helpfull, if I hadnt already read that on here I may have been suspect but its true gone are the days when u just pop to the shop, now its a full on chat at the till.
Will continue this thread with anythin worth posting, regards to all plodding thru the process and hello to all over here already :clap
Amanda, Dan, jack & Ella xx
After 25hrs and 2 small kids we have made it to NZ!:raebanana We left UK at 4.30am on Mon 26th and travelled through various time zones and 2 lots of night and day (odd) and arrived in Auckland airport at 2230 on tues 27th march. Any tips for future family fliers??????????? Yeh, if u have an infant def book a child seat for them and take ur UK car seat on board, we also managed to secure a sky cot but Ella hated it and slept more in her car seat. We flew with Singapore Air & they were really helpfull. I gor some of the well known phenergen from the doc for Jack but never used it really, he got a bit fed up after 10hrs on 1st flight and I tried him with some then but he spat most of it out! He gave in after a bit of a screamin do and cuddled into dad for couple hrs. Poor little Ella had an awful landing to Singapore, her ears popped I think & she had a stinky & was beside herself with tiredness. Even I cried as I treid to console her, I told Dan I was not puttin the kids thru another 9hr flight. However they both perked up at singapore (lovely airport) To my relief the 2nd leg was a doddle, both kids &us had a good few hrs kip, we arrived in to very warm auckland evening.
Couldnt see to much on the way to Hamilton as it was dark but got the jist of the little wooden houses :laugh Our motel is fine for what we need and the owners are a hoot! Wed morn and we have brought the rain but boy is it still warm, or muggy as we say in Scotland! We made a couple of UK mates before we came and they have been a godsend, picked us up at the airport, came for us on wed and the kids played together, fed us some T and took us to see a rental property. We are now the proud renters of a 4bed detatched bungalow with en-suite and walk in wardrobe (just a big cupboard :laugh ) some sort of fruit tree apparently. We dont get it till 7th may tho, but sensibly thats not too bad cos our furniture arrives on the 11th, at least the motel has all the facilities we need. Dan goes off to Welly for 7wks mid april but is home 5wkends out of 7.
Thursday and still rainin, again still warm. We venture into town, open our ASB accounts, no probs at all, sort out our application for family assistance and are pointed in the direction of where to get community cards (med discount etc) and poss assistance with rent, although I doubt very much we will qualify, however we will ask for everything! Dan & kev go car hunting, think we are having a honda odyssey (??) its much bigger than Im used to and the cars here tend to be automatic with the gear stick on the steering wheel, I will have to find an empty car park and experiment. The kids are still getting thier body clocks adjusted and both nights so far we have been up at midnight and tried everythin to settle them again, managed it by 2-3am.
Fri (today) rain, but the sun is trying to break thru! Dan brought a car for us to see, yeh they just let him take it! Think we will go for it or one very similar, he's now popped to the rental agent to sign up for the house. Later we are invited to a BBQ, weather permitting! and Jack is looking forward to playing with kate & Kev's kids, she has put our name down for mums & toddlers and has a kindy for jack to attend.
So any big decisions yet? Prob not far to soon, it prob feels like we are on hol at the mo, Im glad with how quickly and easily things are to sort out and as soon as we get a car we can make some trips out like Steve & Jan have. Maybe in a few wks when we are still in a motel and I havent seen my daughter & parents for a while I may feel diff but we have decided to give it a good go for at least 2yrs then decide. Everyone really is incredibly helpfull, if I hadnt already read that on here I may have been suspect but its true gone are the days when u just pop to the shop, now its a full on chat at the till.
Will continue this thread with anythin worth posting, regards to all plodding thru the process and hello to all over here already :clap
Amanda, Dan, jack & Ella xx