Day 1 in NZ after the Long Trip

We arrived at Christchurch airport and my FIL and MIL were there to meet us. My FIL took these photos.  Andrew's best girl mate K was there with her daughter too! We had not seen her or her family in almost 5 years!

They brought Anika a pressie.

That is what I look like after 30 hours of travel.  ha

We said bye to K and S and piled into both of my inlaws cars. We needed both with all our luggage. MY MIL had rented us a car seat and that was all set up in one of the cars. 

We drove right to our new house. We did not take any photos while at the new house because a renter had JUST moved in.  It was a little smaller than in photos but the gardens were better in person. The neighborhood was cute. LOTS AND LOTS Of floor to ceiling windows, like many houses in NZ.

Then we went into city centre to see where Andrew's dads shop used to be....
The entire block has been demoed since the earthquakes and his store is now a parking lot :(

 

We went to my inlaws house to have lunch and settle in. I showered and got out of my  2 day old outfit and into something better suited for warm weather. 

 

We went to Andrew's old house...it is going to be demoed soon. It doesn't look bad from the outside in these photos, but it is off the foundation and the roof is all falling in. It is very warped.

The house is named Awhina- A Maori name. It Pretty much means "The Friends House" from what I understand. 

The Photo above is Me sitting in front of the house (LEFT SIDE in a red shirt) back in 2005 when I was dating Andrew.

 This is 2012. All grown in. Anika and I standing to the left of house. You can see the broken window.

The walkway is all grown in now.

 

The main hall in 2005 and 2012. He redid the wood floors in 2006.

 

 2005 and 2012 in the carport

2005 and 2012 out back.

 

Andrew got pretty emotional seeing the house.  I felt bad for him.  Sad to know it will be gone the next time we are there. He worked really really hard to buy that house. When I was there for 6 months, he pretty much just worked and we were at the house a lot because he had no extra money to do fun things.  I was a young college kid and didn't get it, but I get it now.  He made a lot of sacrifices.
The area the house is located is very posh and we love it.  I love walking to the café, along a the river and to his friends house.  UGh, if I could just MOVE my family there and rebuild on that land, we would.

 

 

Anika had her FIRST meat pie!!
She likes to put herself in her seat and she was eating this while parked, and her straps were correct while driving. I noted this because I take car seat safety pretty seriously. We were  hit when Anika was an infant. I was also hit Yesterday in a snow storm. A guy couldn't stop and hit me from behind.  Also, car accidents kill more kids age 0-3 than anything else.  AND, lastly, I have a lot of friends and family who are VERY passionate about car seat safety so when I posted this on fb I didn't want them to blast me :) 

 Yum!!

 

Hanging out at Poppa's house.

 

Well, it only took me 2 weeks to write this post.  Life is just really getting in my way of blogging.
I don't even know if anyone is still reading, but I will keep plugging away when I can.
I would love to share more of our trip with you and record it for my memories before I forget!