School

We've been in New Zealand for nearly three weeks now.  We've enjoyed our bounty of family time, but needless to say, the kids were all ready to meet some new friends!

Ben and Julia started school on Monday.  They are attending Aranui Primany School which is our neighborhood school.  The school has 140 students in grades 1-6. There is only one class for each grade except grade 1.  Julia is in grade 1 (which is like kindergarten at home) and her teacher is Mrs. Roberts (or Mrs. R).  She is in the small class right now but will probably move to the bigger class once she gets more comfortable at school.  This smaller class is for new students.  When a child turns 5, he/she starts school.  So all the kids in her class are new to school.  Despite a few tears on the first day, she is doing great!  She is enjoying the "climbing frame" on the playground.  And I think she may come home with an accent!  She brings home a book to read each day and she reads it with an accent because that's how the teacher reads it :)

Julia's classroom

Ben is in grade 3 and his teacher is Mrs. Jackson.  I didn't even get in the door of his classroom on the first day and Ben was being welcomed by the other boys and being led away to hang up his bag and get outside to play!  They have two recesses at school.  One after tea and one after lunch.  The second recess is an hour long.  They also have cross country time where they run for 10-20 minutes around the field to prepare for the city cross country meet which their school hosts each year.

Ben and some new buddies checking out Julia's room

Ben running around at morning assembly

Ellie started school on Wednesday.  She is attending Wanganui Girl's College.  She is still sorting out her schedule, but will mostly be taking electives and then will have open study times during her school day to work on her online classes that she will be taking (so she can keep up with her classmates at home).  Her school covers grades 9-13 and has 400 girls.  She made a few friends yesterday and enjoyed checking out some possible classes - her favorite was photography. Ellie and Mimi do have to wear a uniform! All intermediate and secondary schools in New Zealand require uniforms and each school has a different uniform.  It's interesting to see all the different uniforms on our drive to school.  I'm sure we'll eventually get them all figured out! 

Mimi just started school this morning (Thursday).  She is attending Wanganui Intermediate School.  Her school also has 400 students, but is all grade 7-8.  And it's co-ed.  That's a lot of 7-8 graders!  She is in Mrs. Percy's class.  They stay with their class, but move around to specialty teachers during the day.  Tuesday afternoons are sport time.  So Mimi will have to choose a sport to do on those days.  The options are very interesting: mountain biking, badminton, sailing, roller hockey, canoe polo are just a few- the options seem endless.  I don't even know what some of them are!  I can't wait to hear about her day!!

"Palmy"

Last weekend we took a road trip to Palmerston North (Palmy to the locals).  It's a 45 minute drive down highway 3 south-east of Wanganui.  It's population is 85,000 which means it has decent shopping and a real mall!  The town is centered on a town square which is where we explored.

One of the many fields filled with sheep and strangely manicured huge tree-hedges

There really are more sheep than people here!

Lunch at "The Coffee Club" on the square

Mimi loves the pumpkin soup, which is the winter specialty around here.  It's really delicious!

Posing on the square

Great museum in Palmy

Julia made herself right at home in the kids area.  It was so sweet to see her playing kitchen again.  Her play kitchen is one of the things she misses the most from home.  We were there a LONG time and I was so happy to see her having so much fun.

Julia serving me my favorite treats.  She's the best chef!

A funky old camper van on display (with a daddy photo-bomb)

Cris and Ben at the Rugby museum

Beautiful poppies - even in the winter

We were beyond excited to find a lil orbits stand - halfway around the world!  We had to get a bucket of them - with "from Minneapolis, MN" on the bucket

A mall - a real mall!  They didn't shop long when they realised that their money doesn't go far down here.  Neither does mine!

The Beach

Just a short walk down our street, is access to a beautiful, wide, black sand beach.  Even in the middle of winter, we are truly enjoying the experience of living on the sea!  We've been collecting shells, rocks and other treasures every day.  Our shoes and socks have been filled with black sand.  We have purchased boots for the kids to wear.  We know that hats and mittens are almost always a good idea to bring, just in case!  We are learning every day in this strange, far away land, half-way around the world.

Path from the street to the stairs

Ben heads on down

Racing through the dunes

Almost there...

Made it!

View to the south

And the north

Love these kids!

Fun on the driftwood

The Tasman Sea is vast!

The waves are mesmerising

Ellie's cutie new boots

Collecting shells

Julia's best yet!

Beautiful Mimi

We're having an adventure, that's for sure!

Our house

We are blessed to be staying in a lovely house on a cliff overlooking the Tasman Sea.  It is about a 10 minute drive from our house to the clinic where Cris is working.  We are all mesmerised by the amazing views from our windows.  It's just beautiful here!

View from the road

Dining room

Kitchen/Living room

View from the living room

Our back yard

View to the south.

Those are the snow-capped mountains of the South Island that are visible on a clear day!

While we don't have direct access to the beach (due to the cliff), we have access just down the street which we have already made great use of!  More on that in our next post...

We're here!

Hello family and friends!  Greetings from New Zealand!!

We left Milbank a week ago and what a week it has been.  We've travelled thousands of miles and the adjustment is going pretty well.  We've made progress on our to-do list, crossing off items such as getting cell phones, activating bank cards, stocking the kitchen with groceries, and GETTING WIFI AT THE HOUSE!  The McDonald's employees will probably miss our family and the time we've spent there lately.  Next on the list are school and ballet registration.  It's a big and intimidating process to move half-way around the world, but we are thankful for all of the friendly people we've encountered along the way.  Also, the clinic employees at WAM, have been especially kind and friendly, welcoming us with a traditional Maori ceremony called a Powhiri.

But first, we've had requests for pictures, so that's what this post will contain.  Lots and lots of pictures. 

 We left Milbank on Tuesday, July 9.  My brother's van was filled with six large suitcases to check, six wheeled carry-on bags, six backpacks, and of course, the six Webbs.

Our good friends met us with an awesome send off in Ortonville!

My brother dropped us off at MSP.

We flew to LAX first.  Then had to collect our luggage and check in again with Air New Zealand. 

The flight to Auckland was 13 hours.  Plenty of time to sleep, which we actually all did!

Arrived in Auckland at 6:30 AM local time.  Time for some wifi and hot chocolate from McD's at the airport while Cris arranges hotel transport.  Yes, those three carts are all of our luggage! 

Cris had an interview with the New Zealand medical board in Auckland on Thursday afternoon.  We had time to explore downtown Auckland before his appointment, though.  It's winter here and it's cold! So we found a Starbucks to warm up with hot beverages.

Some cool street art

We decided to check out Sky Tower

View through the floor

Ferris Bueller moment

Elevator ride down

Sidewalk cafe for lunch

Augie friends - recognise this statue? It was in a park behind our hotel!

Dinner by the harbour

We woke up super early Friday morning, so went out to find that only Dunkin Donuts was open.  The kids had never eaten there!

Sunrise at the harbour

Morning view of Sky Tower

Then we were off to the airport again for a quick one-hour ride from Auckland to Wanganui.

More on Wanganui and our home there on the next post!