Patumahoe

It was rather nice to arrive at Auckland airport, knowing that this time we wouldn't have another 3+ hours in the car before we reached our destination. This visit we were going to stay up close to Auckland, with Nathans sister Nikki and her family.

They too have lived in many places. When I first got to know Nathan and later while we were in Horsham, we were lucky to have them just up the road in Chipstead. They then moved to Sydney in 2005 and spent a few years there, before they moved back to Europe and ended up staying in Aberdeen for about seven years. They moved back to their house in Sydney in June 2016; only to move again six months later, across to Auckland - where they are now planning to stay. For a while at least..!

They have bought a house on a lot of acres in the countryside outside a small village called Patumahoe. Nice for the kids to have lots of open space to play on, both the rugby ball and the cricket set came to good use, and Chester the dog got a lot of playtime too!
Me, I was excited at the prospect of getting to explore a new area of NZ!

Grandma and Grandad was already in place too, and we didn't wait long getting into the wine and cheese!

Jet lag can be tough...

The cousins: