Living tomorrow, today!
When we traveled to New Zealand we entered a time machine that shot us forward 22 hours and though it was a 5 1/2 hour flight, we landed 16 1/2 hours after we left. The twins loved it because it meant that it was almost an entire day closer to their birthday! So, for all of you living yesterday right now, just know that tomorrow is a beautiful day…I know, because I’ve already lived it. I guess that makes me pretty special.Update on Tanda Malaika: The inspector found her environmentally safe to sink, and she is still sitting on the reef waiting for the salvage company to tow her off and sink her. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Our dear friends in Aukland, Conrad and Teri, dropped us off at the RV rental and we loaded into it for our trip to Wellington.
Danny is a natural at driving on the left hand side of the road since he’s done it many times on work trips,
but that didn’t stop Aidan from being thoroughly freaked out by the speed which was way beyond 8 knots, and the sound and movements of the motor home. He just knew he was going to die any second!
It didn’t take long for the scenery to change from densely populated neighborhoods to open country with green fields and rolling hills. Farmlands so picturesque with cows or sheep in the fields and rows of tall trees standing tall and orderly like soldiers in a perfect line.
We didn’t stop to explore because we wanted to drive the 643 km to Wellington by night time so we could spend the night then get to the Indonesian embassy first thing Monday morning. Some friends of ours on s/v Pandora, who were in the anchorage in Huahine had friends visiting them at the time, who Danny and I never met, but the creatures did. They have kept in contact with Mycah and told her that we could park the RV at their home while in Wellington and stay with them. Bruce and Clare Smith and their two sweet daughters, Lucy and Molly, have been so wonderful. Clare is an amazing cook and wonderful, thoughtful person. Bruce loves to come home from work and call Aidan into the living room to play xbox with him. Both Aidan and Danny have loved that. Once again, we are surrounded by Angels.
Our morning at the Indonesian Embassy was pleasant as we found the staff extremely helpful.
We were told to fill out forms they gave us, get passport photos taken, print out a bank statement and an itinerary and pay $80 per person. We spent the day collecting the needed items, and had quite a difficult time getting passport photos taken….
We were told to not smile in the photos, but Jude and Emma had a heck of a time accomplishing this!
Emma had to try imagine terrible things like dead horses to stop laughing,
then poor Jude laughed till she cried and for one instant had no smile and the photographer quickly captured it so her visa photo looks like she has been crying!
The photographer laughed along with us and made the kids laugh even more at times.
Wellington is a beautiful city with impressive sky scrapers and extremely clean streets.
We found an alley we thought was especially cool looking.
Danny found Aidan an awesome place to skateboard for a bit. He had a blast and a half.
Since an itinerary was needed we looked at tickets to Bali for next week, and the cheapest day to fly is Monday, so we booked them. It’ll be an early morning for us but I’m sure we will all snuggled down in our seats and enjoy a good long nap once on board. At the embassy we were told that we would be called within 3 days to pick our visas up, and they called today to say they were ready.
Aidan and Emma are enjoying their 15th birthday today. It’s hard to believe that our babies are so old! I asked them to smile nicely for a photo and they just couldn’t quite pull it off.
Our beautiful granddaughter, Zailyn, is also growing so beautifully and we just want to kiss her sweet little face.
We are so grateful for family, friends and good health, and are so blessed. We are excited to get settled and be where are going to be for a while. Tanda Malaika continues to tug on our heart strings, but we are moving forward as a family one step at a time. Life is good.
Adventures of a Tribe 