Yes, I know we’ve been home in New Zealand for around six weeks now. It has taken me awhile to get caught up on posting on here. I like to keep things in chronological order, because that’s just the way I am, so here we go.
This was our first evening home. We landed in Christchurch around 9:30 am, so got home around noon. We unloaded the van and I cooked lunch; in the afternoon I unpacked all the suitcases and plastic totes we had packed with books, fabric, and other treasures we brought home. We sure enjoyed the warmth of the house; a friend had come early that morning and started both fires for us. It was quite chilly outside, since it was still midwinter. We were used to the heat of midsummer in Ohio, of course, so the warm house was especially welcome. By evening, what with the difficulty sleeping sitting up on the airplane the night before, and the eight-hour time difference between the Eastern time zone of the United States and our time here, these boys fell asleep waiting for supper to be ready. We tried to wake them up to eat, but finally gave up and carried the two younger ones to bed. Mr. Diligence stayed all night on the couch. Little Miss wasn’t asleep, but she was imitating her brothers!
A couple of mornings after we got home, we were treated to a visit from this pair of Paradise Ducks in our yard!
Our first Sunday home, we went to church in Kaikoura, enjoying thoroughly the beautiful mountains. Some us us found out how much we had missed the mountains and the sea while we were gone!
Little Miss was delighted to finally get to wear this dress, which a great-aunt had given her. Because of the long sleeves, I saved it to wear here, where it’s colder, rather than in Ohio where it was so hot.
The cats were happy to be home. We picked them up on our way home from the airport, and they obviously remembered this place. We wondered if they would run away, but they were happy here right away. Esther was amused when she saw this scene one afternoon.
This was our second Sunday home; we went to Waikari for church. It poured for a couple of hours, but the skies started to clear as we left, and then we saw this brilliant double rainbow!
Looking back the other direction, this is what we saw.
We greatly enjoyed our trip to America, but there is no place like home, and no place like New Zealand!
Enjoyed reading the update…and the pictures are lovely..thanks for sharing Emma
Hi there,
I loved this blog post, and thank you for introducing your family. This my first time to read you blog, so please forgive me if you’ve already introduced your family previously. I agree with you that as lovely as it is to get the chance to travel … there is never any place to match home. Although I’ve lived in Australia since I was 14 years old, I still miss my New Zealand home so much. I passed through on a cruise just over two years ago, but it’s just not the same. At Tauranga, while my HoneyBun stayed onboard the ship, I got off, chatted and sipped coffee with a writing/editing friend. Once we parted a couple of hours later, I didn’t want to get back onboard the ship (personally if hubby wasn’t there, I think I’d have jumped ship ??), so I took a trip on a cute, wee road train. I had ball, I really did. Before boarding the ship again I also wandered around the park and gardens taking more than ample photographs. Oh how I miss my New Zealand ??
Blessings,
Jo’Anne ?????
If you ever get to the South Island, look us up!