{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 Our trip back to NZ started off like some beginning to an english essay question ...It was dark and cold and snowing outside at 5.30am Sat 7 Feb as Terry quietly got our stuff ready while Ria groaned `5 more mins and I will get up`. 10 mins later, after Terry had warmed the car up, cooked some rice and gotten himself ready, I dragged myself out of bed and proceeded to throw out orders to anyone who would listen ..ie nob-one!! Typical!Our truck was stacked to the brim, two 25kg boxes, three huge suitcases, two tired children, three carry on bags..and a freshly-made apple pie, a stack of pancakes and two bowls of rice (god forbid we should get hungry on our 2 hour drive to the airport!!) The apple pie was for the pommy guy Tim who let us leave our car at his place which was about 15 mins from the airport, then he drove us to the airport which made everything so much easier.\par \par BARRING a few outbursts by the kids during check-in (temporarily solved by the kind check-in ladies who handed out a continuous supply of lollies to the kids) and Terry handing over the 10 page user-manual for the baby carseat we were taking on board INSTEAD of the one page letter which stated that the carseat was `approved for use on planes`..he realised this after the aiport person read the whole manual written in ENGLISH and informed Terry that `this is a users manual!` hahahah we got checked, stamped and processed very expeditiously and our 6 hour flight to Singapore was a dream! We had the air hostesses (and hosts) with the most-esses. Cant say enough about them, they didnt mind it at all when Maata-Vera took a blanket and covered the spare row of seats with it to make a fort!! We thought Singapore Airlines rocked..until we had our 10 hour ordeal from Singapore to Auck with the air hostesses with the `least-esses..they were the exact opposite of the earlier ones and seemed to avoid us as much as possible..despite the service the kids were so good on the plane and Mata-vera was so happy to see her nanny waiting there at the airport that it made everything else seem so unimportant.\par \par Two weeks of being with the whanau was the bestest! even if the weather was a bit off(slight understatement), and the ceiling in one bedroom in the home we rent out collapsed, and Te Akonga spent the whole two weeks getting over some mysterious-and-spooky-looking viral rash, Terry couldnt resolve his drivers licence stuff, the Hurricanes losing..yep despite all that nothing beats being home and being able to relax, thanks to our mums and dads, and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and cousins and very good friends. \par \par Our trip back to Japan started off with a hiss and a roar on the Sat (We were due to fly out on the following Sunday.) Terry couldnt find his passport!! He had used it the previous day as ID for an AA application but of course AA is closed on Sats so he had to ring the national office to see if he could get someone to open up the Rotorua office...OH MY GOD!!!! While he was waiting for them to call back he retraced his steps and still couldnt find it, then he remembered his brother-in-law had tidied up yesterday arvo...oh no cos Hawea@s style of tidying up is `throw everything that DOESNT belong to him out whilst keeping his own things in a nice pile`..., luckily tho, Hawea thought the passport on the table was his own and he neatly put TERRYS passport in his own bag! Just Champion...protecting others from serious harm and working in a danger zone he can do - but god help the people if they rely on him to check important documents!!! We got to Auck airport, checked in our 120 or so kgs of luggage,(Terry charmed the check-in lady so we didnt have to pay excess) AND HAD A PHOTO WITH OOH AHHH UMANGA! which cheered me up a little cos i was sad to leave and Im not too proud to admit that I cried once we went through that point of no-turning-back.\par \par As good as Maata-Vera was on the way to NZ is pretty much the exact opposite of how she was on the way home..grr..so by Singapore we decided to give them some medication to calm them down so they could sleep on the final 6 hour leg..yeah well we under-estimated the power of this stuff so it pretty much knocked them out. You may think this is good..and it woulda been if we didnt have so much bloomin carry-on stuff. As it was we had a carseat, a computer bag jammed with everything we couldnt fit in the big bags, Maatavera had her own carry^on bag (which of course we had to carry!!) and Terry and I had one each. Now add two dead-weight kids to the equation and the fact you had to go through the xray thing which meant unloading everything, then picking them up, then handing over tickets ..oohhhhh...you can see how we wish we had given them the stuff after they had walked themselves onto the plane!...And of course Maat-vera, after being dead to the world, WAKES UP as we finally get to our seats and wants to sit on her daddy!! Luckily Te Akonga was just perfect and he slept all the way home.\par \par We got to Japan, went thru customs in a matter of seconds, it pretty much went `Anything to declare?` no?, ok go through!! So we got all our stuff - two trolley loads and we thought we would have to catch two taxis to where our car was being stored...but we underestimated the skill of the japanese taxi driver. Our driver crammed us four, a carseat, a 25kg box, three huge suitcases and all our carry-on items into one taxi. Admittedly the boot wouldnt close and Te Akonga had to sit in his backpack cos the carseat had three bags on it, but we got there at half the expected price..NZ taxi drivers could learn something from this!!\par \par We picked up our car..and thankfuly to Terry@s expert sense of direction (he had to tell the taxi driver where to go!!) we made it home one and a half hours later...just in time for me to catch a train back to Fukuoka city cos I had to go straight to work!!Yeah poor me, but I didnt feel too bad and at least I didnt have to look after two small kids who had slept heaps so were full of beans like Terry did.\par \par We are already back into the swing of things, and the house doesnt look so much like a bomb site as it did when we first unloaded all our stuff. \par Terry and our best mate Fumi-san performed at the kids daycare on Sat morning and that was neat. Maata-vera even sang one verse of a song then got shy and sat down so I had to sing the rest..grrr!They gave Terry and Fumi a little bit of money for the concert, and gave us some expensive and delicious little cakes and cookies and a cup of coffee and japanese tea (which te Akonga and Fumi's daughter managed to knock over one cup each )\par \par Today is graduation day, so I am wearing a dark suit ..AS WAS REQUESTED OF ME ON THREE DIFFERENT OCCASIONS! hahaha, anyway so that means, no classes today, a free lunch and a staff dinner/party (which was not free but thats ok)\par }