Another chance to do a 'journey back in time' piece!
I don't know if we talked much about our reasons for coming to NZ or how we made the decision but it was basically a mixed bag of disappointment, worry and hard times in the UK. The usual thing I think for any expat is the fact their 'home' country didn't feel like home anymore and this develops the need and want to know what else there is in the world and how you can make your life better for your family.
So we made the decision in December 2005 to travel to New Zealand on a bit of a recon mission really, just to scope things out and see what it was really like here. Of course we knew it was going to be difficult trying to figure out it all whilst staying in a fancy hotel and being tourists, but we gave it all we could!
We planned our trip as best we could, this was our first long haul flight and of course we had Bethany who wasn't even 2 yet. We had, what we thought was the best idea to take a night flight so that Bethany could sleep through, this didn't work out as planned, instead of sleeping through she was wide awake with the excitement - making her worse! However after the initial torture she soon relaxed and became a good little flyer.
We arrived in Dubai and had probably one of the worst breakfasts ever and were grossly overcharged for the privilege too, then after boarding, landing, departing and boarding again what seemed like a million times we finally arrived in Auckland.
We stayed at The Grand Chancellor Hotel which was right in the centre of the city, it had an amazing view over to the harbour bridge and was at the end of the same street as the Auckland Sky Tower.
Our mission was to check out the local job scene, go talk with recruitment agencies and even go and view some houses that would be in our price range. We managed pretty well with all of these things, Michael disappearing for a few hours here and there as he went for chats with the agencies, and we even saw two houses that were for sale, trying of course to get to grips with the way the housing market works in NZ at the same time.
But of course we did the touristy things too! We toured the city, went on ferry rides around the harbour, visited probably one of the most stunning view points ever in the Auckland Sky Tower, we had a chilling experience in an ice bar called Minus 5, visited Kelly Tarltons, went to the most beautiful Bay of Islands and a secret hideaway island, not to mention Auckland Zoo and most importantly, Michael even fit in a bungy jump from the Harbour bridge! We did so much, too much to be able to publish all the best photos, so you can view them all here if you want to: 
Auckland - 2005
Now when Wellington kiwi's ask us what the decider was for coming to NZ, we tell them it was this trip to a beautiful city. They often laugh saying that Auckland is one of the worst cities in NZ, however for us it was a beautiful magical place, one that drew us in and stayed in our hearts forever.
We gained knowledge, faith, admiration and lust for New Zealand in that short trip, and we were certainly not going to let that get away.
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