All a bit of a blur

Nice view, eh? This is what I can see right now. I'm sat in Leigh, about an hour and a bit north of Auckland, at Tom and Shirley's place (Jo's mum and step-dad, just in case you don't know who I'm on about), a gorgeous house on a hill overlooking a beautiful blue bay with islands off in the distance. Yep.

It was so great to see smiling faces greeting us at Auckland airport. It's hard to leave my family back in the UK (the only time I've got a bit tearful about leaving was after speaking to my sister and Ellie on the way to the airport on Monday), but it's so great to see Joanne and her family reunited here in NZ.

The journey, once we'd got through the stress of checking the suitcases in and breathing a huge sigh of relief that none of them exceeded the maximum weight limit, was long, but pretty uneventful. I think the excitement and anticipation made it bearable. I guess it's the same as flights to a holiday being so much more bearable than flights back. And, to be honest, it still does feel like a holiday at the moment. I'm not sure when it will quite sink in that we're here to live. Maybe it will be when we get down to Chch on the 8th August, maybe when Jo starts work on the 20th, or when I start getting interviews (fingers crossed, eh?), or maybe not even until we move into a house of our own. I'm not really sure. The one thing I am sure of is that it's all a bit surreal. That, and the fact that I'm really rather tired.

The last couple of days have all been a bit of a blur but it was brilliant to have lots of time with church friends before we left. On Saturday I played indoor cricket (my team got a bit beaten) while Joanne cleaned the flat ( thank you, sweetheart!), and then on Sunday we had the Barge church family picnic and final Sunday evening service as I mentioned before.

Basically it meant a whole day spent with lots of dear, dear friends. It was time to catch up, time to enjoy, and time to say goodbye. It was quite hard leaving the barge on Sunday evening after the service. It was kind of a sad time, but a happy time too. Sad that we were leaving behind so many special friends, but also a happy time in that we have so many special friends who wanted to say goodbye to us. Does that make sense? We are going to miss so many people. It's going take a while to replace our Christian family at the barge. But I guess technology makes it easy to stay in touch nowadays, doesn't it?