So here we go. The moment of truth, its Friday and my wife (Ruth) and my daughters (Ellie, Cari and Meg) arrive. How will the react to New Zealand? I arrive at the Aukland airport at 08.35 to discover the plane had arrived 30 mins early. The processing time for arrivals is about 45 mins with 15 minutes of me arriving they arrived narrowly avoiding the doomsday scenario of them arriving and me not being there !

Arrivals at Auckland airport is a significantly more emotional place than any other airport I’ve been to. With greetings of the ‘haven’t seen you for years and I’ve really missed you’ variety rather than ‘oh there you are the car is parked in a really expensive place so get a move on’. Our is an emotional re-union even though it has only been three weeks. Accompanied by my mother-in-law Gillian, the journey had been as OK as I can be when travelling very long haul with 3 small and very small children.  Nobody had managed succeeded to sleep between Honking and Auckland apart from apart from Meg (the youngest at 4 years old).

My challenge now is to keep everyone awake for as long as possible so that they begin the transition to NZ time which is 12 hours ahead of where there bodies are telling them they are.

Its a very sunny day so the drive to St Heliers along Tamaki drive which snakes along the Eastern Bays’ beaches which made for an impressive introduction to the city – in a sunny day the sea of the Waitamata harbour is striking emerald green.

Everyone settled into the house which they love and then we walked the short distance to St Helier’s beach for a swim (to keep people awake) before heading downtown to catch the ferry to Devonport and had an early supper at about 5.00pm. By about this time eyes were starting to close. On the journey back to the house all the kids were just about asleep. All were in bed by 7pm very willingly !!

On Saturday  we head up Mount Eden an extinct volcano which is the highest peak in Auckland. Mt Eden affords a great vantage point to orientate yourself as you can see down to St Heliers, the Sky Tower, over to the North Shore, Eden Park etc etc. And in the afternoon we crashed out at Takapuna beach.

Sunday as part of my strategy to bombard them with positive experiences of Auckland in the first few days awe headed over to Waiheke island. Waiheke is a 30 mins trip from downtown Auckland and  has lovely beaches, native bush and a dozen vineyards. We headed straight to Palms Beach where the kids collected shells and Cari fond a sharks tooth (more likely a possum tooth if you ask me).

After three days, they seem happy and enthusiastic about the adventure the tis about to unfold. So far so good !