The Reynoldz

When we landed, we had 4 wonderful folks greeting us at the airport. Anna, Eric, Haidyn and Athea. They took two cars to pick us up with our 7 bags of luggage. We got rid of one box right away when we opened up the car seats and put them in the vehicle. Here we are in the car, driving on the wrong side of the road. Pretty cool to sit in the drivers seat and not drive. Wierd watching the cars pass in front of us from the right. Anna's rule to remember which lane to pull out to is always keep the center line closest to the driver or Eric's is to just drive down the center line.

We dropped Haidyn off at school on the Friday morning. It is an open set up with assembly in the center. They were singing a Maori (pronounced Mow ree) language good morning song. Couldn't understand it and Haidyn doesn't know it yet so you don't get the words this time. We checked out the K to 1st grade and the 4th grade. They go by ages. So if you are nearly 6, you would be in 1st grade and if you are 9, you are in 4th. They switch on the birthdays.

Walk up the hill to the school. Center is open for assembly. Classrooms are separate buildings.
The view from the school.

Grades K - 5, small compared to Hillcrest (Dani, Faith and Erin's school).

We then went home to Anna's to recover from jet lag. Here is the view from her front window,

you can see the ferry. This is the Breaker bay.

This is the backyard with the playhouse. Erin is peaking out the door.

Saturday, we went swimming at the pool and met Anna and Eric's friends, the Doucettes, who also have a blog. Lisa, Andy, Liam and Ronan. It was busy with swimming lessons. Remember to go after 12 next time. The water was warm, like a hot tub, for the smaller kids, so guess who ended up in the kids pool. Everyone. We ate at Subway. Think turkey is safe, guess wrong, it tasted like sausage. Kids did not like it. (Turkey is not indiginous to New Zealand, I guess at Thanksgiving it costs 90.00 bucks a Turkey. They only bring them in for the US folks that live here because NZ doesn't celebrate the US Thanksgiving). Remember next time, get ham. I liked the Meatball sandwich.

We took a nap because kids are owly, then we went for a walk on the beach. Quite relaxing.

Anna took me to the grocery store to get a visual of how different the food is. Everything is in metric. We were looking for White grape juice and we were shown the bottle of sparkling juice. They only have one isle of frozen food. People do not buy a lot of groceries at one time. They go more often to the market. So bulk is unknown. For the most part, it is set up the same, just the names of things are different.

Fruits are the 1st isle, then meat. Lots of lamb, and hamburger is called Mince. I thought those were small pork chops, but Anna told me that is lamb chops. Oops. I don't want to eat baby lambs. Lets buy chicken, that looks the same. So picture Anna, the 1st time trying to find diapers. What is 8 - 18 KG anyway. I just want size 3.

Eric had the kids in bed when we got home. I think were were gone 1 1/2 hours. So we had popcorn and watched a movie.

It is Sunday and we are going on a walk. We got up at 6:30 am instead of 5:00 am. So we are adjusting.

Cute kitty PJs from Haidyn and Matt in his corner livingroom bedroom. And the elephant, where did that come from? He must have traveled with us from Disneyland Jungle Safari.

Athea opening her present from Uncle Glenny

Aunty Julie. Meaw, meaw meaw the kitty she got and a sun dress which the girls are wearing. Time to go, the blog is full today. Post more tomorrow or Monday. Love the Devery's and the Reynolds in Renoldbithia.