We're here!

Well, we arrived on 29 December, early in the morning. Had a lovely Xmas in Kuratau with Viv, Ian, Tracy, Damian and the kids - including a visit from Santa in the fire engine (and Santa's clever cos he brought the kids Dirhams...). Jack enjoyed his last crack at Auntie Tracy's baking for a while, and of course had a ball with his best mate Alexa.

After that we spent a few days getting from Taupo to Auckland, and spent some time with Andrew's family in Tauranga. Climbed Mt Maunganui with Grandad Eddie and the kids. Outstanding effort really. Jack walked most of it - did really well. Jaime got carried most of the way...

Kids were great on the flights - slept for basically all the middle leg from Brisbane to Singapore. We are in the Splendid Apartments - quite central, and a very nice quite spacious 2 bedroom suite - here for a month while we find a place of our own. Have had a busy time since we got here - malls (of course), ski slope (of course), visiting new and old friends, and arranging phones and a car. Driving here is fantastic as an experience - left hand drive, right hand side of the road, and with everyone driving like a bat out of hell. The main highway through Dubai is six lanes each way. Luckily McDonalds is still McDonalds here, and the toys for the happy meals are much cooler! We'll work on getting the kids into new things next week...

Had new year's eve with friends of one of Andrew's work colleagues - great night. After not wanting to go Jack stayed up until 1.30am. Unfortunately that meant we slept through the planned ski lesson the next day....