Arrival

What an awesome bunch!

Well, we are here at last! The kids will be tired after such a long day. It has been a day to remember....  we had no hiccups at Auckland and everyone's weight was fine, so thank you for that. 

                                                Just before we went through to security

                                     Checking out the massage chairs as we waited to board.

The airline had been changed from  Air Calin the national carrier, to Tahiti Nui because our original plane was being serviced.  Unfortunately it wasn't quite up to usual standards in terms of flight entertainment! Some kids were peeved that they couldn't get their movies to work or else couldn't get them to change to English (me included, so I was forced to getting into the swing of the language again before we landed!).  The kids  were all good though and amused themselves well.

The flight was OK until we started to descend!  It was definitely the worst flight I've had  going over. There were excited calls of "Yessss!" when the first few bumps occurred but that sure stopped fast!  We rocked and rolled for 20mins on the way down and had a couple of real good drops as well. They were not the only ones on the plane going "ohhhhh".   It definitely was a long 20mins!  We had a couple unwell and a few more pale faces but all very glad to land judging from the cheer that went up as we touched down.

We walked outside to pouring rain though! It's also a first for me - I've always had great weather.  By the time we reached the school 45 minutes later after the bus ride into the city, it was fair teeming. They have no school hall or gathering place so the meet and greet was done on the footpath under umbrellas in the semi dark as we were late!  We were drenched!  When the French teacher took Paul and I to the supermarket to get supplies afterwards, Veronique stopped to wipe my eyes. I had mascara running down my face, hair drenched and dripping......... obviously looked great when I met the parents!

The parents all seemed really nice, as Paul commented to me  a while ago. They were concerned about the kids being cold and wet - wet yes, but it's 24deg so we are definitely not cold like they are! We had to ask for the air conditioning to be turned on in the bus as we were all getting rosy cheeks.
The weather is supposed to improve a bit tomorrow so here's hoping we get the train tour in without getting wet!

Bon soir tout le monde!  Until tomorrow.....