Post-Auckland

Jonny works down on Queen St. so took us right to our building on Thursday Morning. Then we meandered around the city. The sky tower.
There were so many yummy places to eat. After the interviews we celebrated with a really good brunch with Jonny. Best pancakes ever! Well they were like Pan crepes. Soooo good. US with glasses....
and without...
Johnny and Lucy. I personally like this picture but Lucy may tell me off for posting it...what do you think Lucy. I think you look great!
Auckland has Dunkin' Donuts and we couldn't resist....I can't wait for donuts again.

The sky tower peeping out...in black and white
Now this took me back. Zillah, remember Wagamama's in London? It's the greatest Japanese noodle bar. It was one of my favorites when I lived in London. We were going to go but couldn't fit it in...brought back a reminiscent rush.
Auckland has Dunkin' Donuts and we couldn't resist....I can't wait for donuts again.
building
Mike entrenched in his Clive Custler book he bought in the airport. You know the movie, Sahara, yeah, that is one of his. Mike says they are pretty crap but he loves them and can't stop until he's done.
Jonny and Mike not expecting the flash of this picture. So it will be a while until we see Jonny again but he said he's going to come visit us in Vermont.
a post-visa mission smile. Carly and Lucy took some others of Belinda's ring, etc...see their sites for those pix.

We left in such a rush the other day, we forgot to take our nice camera with us, but it was probably for the best because it wasn't really a relaxing trip nor were we in the mood to take many pictures. We stayed with Mike's oldest friend (since they were 10) Jonathan and were able to meet up with Carly Cammock and Belinda (Joe Cammock's fiance) and be with her to pick up her gorgeous engagement ring. Fun. To say the least, it's good to be done with but it left us all in a bit of an anti-climax as none of us got the actual visas and all had to supplement and send up extra stuff. This being Lucy as well as she was applying for a student visa for BYUH. She went up for her interview before us and he really was an idiot. He told her that he thought Mormons were an extremist cult and Mitt Romney didn't have a chance because Americans didn't like extremists...uh talk about extreme. What's most annoying in those situations is because of their position and the carrot they are dangling over you, submission to rudeness is required. Of course, I never say anything in those situations because I do not have a quick wit, but for Lucy, with one of the quickest, if not the quickest (next to Pete, her dad) wits around, it would be even worse. So she sat down and to her great understanding of my stress level at that given moment did not tell me what a jerk he was because our interview was with the same man. He didn't say much to us but I could tell he was an idiot because we met with a woman before him that went through all our papers and pretty much prepared it in totality so all he had to do was sign in the right places. Mike was very nice but there was no interview to speak of he just told Mike to swear that everything was true and sign the paper so Mike began to sign and he said. "well are you going to swear?" and Mike said, "Absolutely" and with that he had his green card, well in theory. I emailed mom right after we left and she got right onto getting our marriage certificate and it's on its way to us. Now that we have been through the immigration process in 2 countries, I would say that the process was pretty equal in both but the stress level for the States was higher. They just surround the whole experience with so much red tape and bureaucracy that it seems impossible bit it actually wasn't bad at all. I think NZ is one of the easier countries to try and immigrate from. We are down to 6 weeks before we leave. This week we are sending up for our India visas and once we have those, we'll send Mike's passport back up to get his green card and away we go. Just to top it off. They give you a sealed Manila envelope that you have to hand in with your passport when you first enter the country. Keep it sealed, she said, Do not open it, she said. I kind of want to.