Auckland

I have to begin by posting pics of our "official" arrival in New Zealand.  As previously mentioned, the twins threw up shortly before landing.  Our carry-on bags (with extra clothes) had been gate-checked at the last minute because they were too heavy.  The only extra clothing we could find belonged to the girls.  Here's Luke and Landon sporting their sisters' clothes as we disembarked from the airplane...as if traveling with a large family weren't a spectacle enough, these guys really turned some heads!

Blurry photos = very tired parents.

We finally made it to our hotel...a business-style building right in the downtown area of Auckland.  We immediately got the impression that they weren't accustomed to large families (especially ones toting a million pounds of luggage).  We didn't get the warmest reception and were glad to only stay one night.

No one felt like sight-seeing too much, but we had to escape the hotel for a few hours.  We had left the handle of our stroller in the shuttle van that transported us to the airport (gratefully, the driver returned it to the hotel later that evening).  So, we took turns "pushing" the stroller this way (pulling on the fabric attached to the back)...

It was pretty difficult to navigate that thing, so we didn't last long.  We did make it to the pier, where the twins enjoyed getting out for a view by the water.

We ordered a pizza, headed back to the hotel, and were in bed by 5pm.

At about 8 pm, we were awakened by the fire drill!  We were so tired and disoriented that it took us a minute to process what was happening, but hearing the drill AND smelling smoke woke us right up!  We looked out over the balcony and saw the fire trucks.

I immediately worried about our older three kids who were staying in a room a few doors down, but when we opened the hotel door they were hurrying down the hall toward us.

Pulling the twins out of a deep sleep to evacuate was difficult (it would appear that pulling myself out was hard, too).

Turns out someone had burned something in the kitchen area of one of the units.  Nothing serious, but it added to the adventure of the day!   After a restless night (including Landon waking up ready to be entertained at 2 am), we picked up our rental van that Steve had secured the day before, and began our journey south.  Our overall impression of Auckland was great and we look forward to spending a little more time there in the future.
Next stop:  Hamilton