Kia Ora – New Zealand at last!

Our plane from San Francisco touched down at Auckland airport at 0530 yesterday, and here we are in New Zealand.  Brexit may still be in the balance, but Wexit has finally happened!  It’s hot here, as we knew it would be, but it’s still a bit of a shock to the system – and predictably our delightfully funny Jack has declared that he “doesn’t like hot places..” – so we have had a fairly gentle time acclimatising to the temperature and our jetlag.  The time difference from San Francisco is only five hours, so it shouldn’t be too bad, but bizzarely, both Angus and our shuttle bus driver seem to think that the fact we have lost a day is also significant in the jetlag equation.  I still maintain this is totally irrelevant..

Marcus, Tim, Robyn, Eloise, George and Jack

We were incredibly lucky with our flight.  Firstly, we weren’t charged us for our extra checked bag, which should have cost 180 USD.  Secondly, the cabin crew had the foresight to realise that their night flight would be much more peaceful if our children were asleep, so they upgraded us from our economy seats to two of their empty “Sky couch” rows.  This is a very clever set up, where the push of a button raises huge square foot rests which close the gap between the three seats and the row in front.  It makes a pretty decent lie-flat bed.  Angus and Eloise were in one row together, and the George, Jack and I had the other. 

The boys and I succeeded in engineering all of our additional clips, belts and buckles sufficiently well that we were not woken once by the cabin staff during turbulence to check if we were actually strapped in.  We all managed to lie flat, squished together like sardines in a tin, first spooning, then face to face or head to toe, then the boys were head to head, then toe to toe..  Every hour or so, either George or Jack would semi-wake up and then flail around wildly, until they wedged at least part of their body into some previously unnoticed space, thus triggering a complete change of position for all of us.  There always seemed to be some body part or other poking past the armrest into the aisle, depending on the arrangement of bodies at that moment.  When it was my feet, it didn’t really matter, but when it was Jack’s head, lolling backwards over the precipice, it was less relaxing.  Luckily there were no passing food trolleys during the sleeping time.  We all got a few hours of shut-eye, and in the morning, we deduced from the sky couch debrief from those around us, that the sleeping position gymnastics were much easier for us than for some of the elderly couples who had bravely given it a go!

The Boys!!

A visit to see Robyn at work in her Arc'teryx Store

We were all sad to leave San Francisco.  After five days there, we had really settled in, and we loved every moment with Tim and Marcus (Angus’s sons) who both live there.  We had so many happy meals and day trips together, as well as Angus’ birthday, and it was tough to leave, not knowing quite when we will all see each other again.  Tim and his wife Robyn had just moved house the week before, and they were wonderful hosts in their new apartment, cooking delicious salmon for us all.  Marcus’ girlfriend Olivia flew in from Calgary especially to meet us, and it was so special for Eloise, George and Jack to spend time with their big brothers and significant others.  We were introduced to a new game, known as a “social deduction” game, based on Werewolfs and Villagers.  Angus and I really struggled with this, as it involved everyone closing their eyes for five minutes while the complicated bit happened.  Needless to say, by the time we were playing games, it was after dinner and we were fighting jetlag plus children; we both fell asleep every time we played it and were absolutely useless!

Some good british weather on the Pacific Coast of San Francisco

Our accommodation was an AirBnB house in East Palo Alto, selected for its proximity to Tim and Robyn.  As it turns out, it has a reputation for being one of San Francisco's dodgier suburbs.  Some of the houses were immaculately kept, but the majority had piles of junk and rubbish outside, in their yards and on the pavement.  We very much stood out as the only white people in the neighbourhood.  No-one really seemed to walk anywhere.  On our second evening, I insisted to Angus that I would be absolutely fine to walk half a mile to the shop to pick up some bits for dinner.  It was still light, and there was no reason at all to take the car.  Off I set, marching along confidently.  I was, however, more than a little bit nervous when I was passed by a guy cycling very slowly on his bike, with a huge chainsaw dangling from his handlebars.  He slowed down and waited for me to catch up.  “You not out running today, then?” he asked.  A case of mistaken identity? “No, not today.”  I smiled at him, hoping this would be the end of our exchange.  He nodded, then pedalled on past, before slowing, circling around, and pulling up alongside me again.  I was wondering if perhaps Angus was right that I shouldn’t have walked alone to the shop – I seemed to have inadvertently attracted some guy armed with a chainsaw – but luckily I arrived at the shop at this point, so in I went to look for dinner.  I made it back home safely with no further bizarre encounters.  Maybe he was just a friendly tree surgeon on his way home from work, but he didn't look like one, and it was a bit unnerving..

San Francisco was striking as a city of the “haves” and the “have-nots”.  Some of the streets almost seem paved with gold; palatial houses, with manicured trees lining their drives, high security gates, and fleets of expensive cars on the drives.  These, presumably, reflect the money made from Google, Apple and all of the other Tech companies who are thriving in this city.  The “have-nots” were visible on the streets in the city centre; their tents pitched on the pavements, dragging possessions around in trolleys, filthy clothes, terrbile ill health – limps, bandages, missing limbs, crutches, wheelchairs.  It struck me as a level of poverty and health inequality that we don’t see as much in the UK, because although we have all sorts of problems with social care and benefits, we do at least have free healthcare for all.

The kids loved watching the sealions at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

One of the highlights of our trip was a walk over the iconic Golden Gate bridge, with Tim, Robyn and Marcus, plus Ewan (our round the world skipper) and his family, who happened to be on holiday there at the same time as us.  The Golden Gate “Visitor Centre” was very disappointing if you wanted to know anything about the bridge, but would have been a dream for anyone after a souvenir.  A book about the city gave us a little more information – the bridge was started in 1933 and finished in 1937, at a cost of 1.2 billion dollars in today's money.  The wage was four dollars a day.  Eleven men fell to their deaths during construction.  Nineteen more fell, but were saved by the safety nets beneath, and these men were said to be members of the “Halfway to Hell Club”.  The children were fascinated by these facts, and it led to a lot of discussion about health and safety in the workplace, and what people thought accepted as OK back then, compared to now.  

Our team with Ewan (our clipper skipper) and Sarah and their boys

San Francisco already seems a world away from where we are now.  We have settled into our amazing airBnB in Auckland, and have two new members of the family already.  The owners of the house have 5 alpacas and 4 dogs, and after just one day, George has completely won over a little jack Russell, aptly named Rufus (one of his besties from home!), and Eloise has adopted the rescue dog, Fifi.  So Fifi and Rufus seem to be in our house, eating up any bits of food that are dropped, sitting beside us on the sofa, and George is trying to persuade Rufus to sleep in his bed!

Alpaca feeding time on the farm (our Auckland airbnb)

The next few days are full of excitement and some trepidation.  We are driving 1.5 hours north tomorrow to go and see Victoria.  It will be the first time the children and I see her.  She isn’t ours yet; we’ll sail her south the following day with her current owners, and then she’ll come out of the water for some painting and rigging work, and once that’s all done we’ll complete the sale.  Fingers crossed..  It will be amazing to see her and hop on board tomorrow; let’s hope she lives up to the dream! 

The children have agreed that home-schooling will start on Monday; the same day as boat painting begins, so hopefully in the next blog there will be lots of pictures of a boat, adults wielding paintbrushes, studious children working away quietly, and also some progress on the much talked about multiplication calculation required to establish how many loo rolls we will need to take with us…!  Watch this space.

Kia Ora!  (I read that the famous Maori greeting can be used to start and finish emails..)

Family Watson xxx