Saying goodbye

It's hard to even write about. Our last weeks in New Zealand were filled with loving friends. It was so much fun up until our final goodbye with each. That's when it got very real.

Sisi and Summer gave Wren and Quinn a tennis lesson

The Dixons had us over for dinner and made up a quiz for us "How Kiwi are you?". The prize was these matching Wellington Pheonix team jerseys.

I took kids to the homemade mini golf place up the road, Carlucciland. Quinn's last playdate with Mara and Willow.

I had a little cry watching Ruby and Wren do their last synchronized swim together on their last sleepover. So much of their childhood in New Zealand...

Sadly, our chickens were killed and eaten our last week in New Zealand. We dug a grave for the one's body we recovered and said our favorite memories of Princess Layer and Green Eggs and Ham. Pet chickens since the girls were 7 and 5... Wren made a heart out of their favorite food, apple slices and Quinn put out their other favorite food, kale leaves from the garden.

On Thursday afternoon I invited the girls' best friends to the movies at our local theater. 

And then everyone came over to our house, and their parents too, for a last fish and chips dinner. Was a kiwi feast with the large sheets of butcher paper filled with crumb battered fish and thick fries, laid out on the floor for the kids, with dollops of tomato sauce.

Lucas made a screen print "Owhiro bay Surf Club" and everyone took turns making a shirt. Was so much fun.

But then it was Friday, Last Day. 

We had a last lunch with Dixons. Quincy gave Quinn a best friends necklace.

Bindi's husband Derek took the kids for the afternoon and then she and Jodi helped me to clean the house top to bottom. I was astounded and so humbled by their friendship and generosity in helping me with such a hard task. 

That night, we went to the first place we'd ever eaten in New Zealand, Il Piccolo. We wanted it to also be our last meal there and it was so fitting to share it with the Robertsons. 

Then, at 3am the Robertsons came to pick us up for the airport. The night was clear and cold and under a blanket of stars we all said a karakia for the journey.

"Whakatakata te hau ki te uru

Whatataka te hau ki te tonga

Kia ma kina kina ki uta 

Kia ma tara tara ki tai

e he ake ana te atakura

he huka, he tio, he hauhu

tihe mauriora!"

It was beautiful. At the airport, Jodi met us with Ruby, her sister Maia, and Kaira. They all waited and helped while we took baggage through the line to check in. 

Tired kids lying down in the airport.

And then it was time. How do you say goodbye? We were all crying. We had a big group hug and then, somehow, we walked away. Was heartbreaking. 

And as a last attempt by New Zealand to keep us, Lucas's pounamu necklace that he'd been given in honor of his time at Massey University set off the security metal detector and held us up. But not long enough. We got on the plane and it gathered speed to leave Wellington as we banked out over the ocean towards Australia and then to Portland.