The Heddens Arrive in New Zealand

There was one event that we had been looking forward to ever since Jeff's parents left us in early August: Meeting up with Annette's parents in mid-September for a New Zealand adventure!

Our time with Jeff's folks was carefully planned and coordinated by all of us, whereas our time in NZ with Annette's parents was really just a product of their hard work and planning.  Our disconnect from the planning of our two-week spin through NZ meant that we had a different relationship to it in terms of anticipation.  With Jeff's parentals we had something concrete to look forward to months before we ever even saw them.  Annette's parents and our wonderful time in NZ with them snuck up on us a bit, and turned into a fantastic surprise tour of the land of the kiwi!

Annette's parents (her mother, Marie, mostly) planned a very full, action-packed two weeks.  Expertly, we might add!  Annette's parents' flight was delayed by about two hours, so when they finally stumbled off the plane we hugged them (quickly), threw them in our rental car (quickly), and proceeded to get lost for an hour driving out of Auckland (slowly).  But we still found time for a tasty lunch outside an historic country pub (leisurely), underneath the sun and alongside hot rod and motorcycle owners who were drinking beer and showing off their considerably righteous rides.

Our day's driving ended in the picturesque town of Russell, which provided us fantastic views from our too-perfect cabin on a hill above town. The next day we hopped  on a boat around 9 in the morning for our Bay of Islands cruise.  But you'll have to be a little patient to read about that, as it is a story for another post.

Note:
We are super de-super lucky to be on this journey in the first place.  And the fact that both parental sets managed to visit us (while taking vacations and seeing the far reaches of the globe) really is too good to be true. There isn't really even a word for how travel-lucky we are!!