Auckland Adventure

Last year just before we traveled to America I realized that Meggie and Josie's American passports had expired. Unfortunately I realized it too late to do much about it and they travelled on their New Zealand ones. It caused a little bit of a hassle as we entered the country so I made sure to get their passports renewed before we travel this year. The US consulate that deals with passports is in Auckland, and because they are minors we couldn't renew by mail and both parents needed to appear with them, so off we we went this week.

The drive to Auckland from Wellington is 9 hours but we broke up the trip with a stop in Palmerston North for lunch, then a night in Waitetoko at the family bach. The girls LOVED the bach! You can see Lake Taupo from the house and it has a nice lawn to play on and they thought it was divine. The house was a bit cold but Dugald built us a fire and we warmed up nicely. We enjoyed sleeping late and playing games and just being together.

We arrived in Auckland to a warm welcome from Kate, Ant, Ben and Wills. Kate invited us to stay with them again which is always a treat. We had a lovely dinner together before heading off to bed for a fairly early night. Sometime after midnight Ant appeared in our room to say there was a fire in the attic and the fire department was on the way! We jumped up and got dressed, checked on the girls and waited for the trucks to arrive. Apparently Wills (who was sleeping upstairs) had smelled smoke, poked around and saw flames in the attic. Thankfully it was easy enough to extinguish but the fire department still did a thorough check to find out what had caused it and even had to tear out part of the wall to gain access.


Surprisingly Katie and Josie slept through all the commotion but the rest of us had a rather exciting night!

The next morning it was off to the consulate for our 10:15 appointment. We arrived just before 10 am, went through security where they took our bags and phones, and then waited for 2 and a half hours for our interview. Ugh.

The US Consulate in Auckland.

When we finally finished Kate took us all down to the beach for lunch at a cafe and a swim. The weather was absolutely stunning and we had a very nice afternoon.
Of course Holly came with us, she sat patiently outside while we ate at the cafe and then frolicked with the girls in the water before plopping down for a rest beside Kate.











After a fun afternoon at the beach we returned home and Katie helped Auntie Kate make homemade pizzas - delicious. We were all sorry to say goodbye the next morning and look forward to our next visit!