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Great flight, all fun and games in business class with lie-flat beds and friendly crew, the kids and J are spoiled forever! Slightly late getting away as they ejected one of the cabin crew for not having her passport, actually kind of funny after they explained the delay wasn’t for the usual catch-all “operating requirements”.

Arrived at SFO airport and all went smoothly with our mountain of luggage, yay for Air NZ gold elite privs!!! People and luggage passed quickly and smoothly through customs and quarantine and just like that we were in America.

We called the cheap and cheerful rental car company – which we had used on a previous trip and had 2 cars booked to carry our mountain of stuff – only to discover the phone number did not work. J jumped in a taxi and legged it to the rental office to find there was a new company where the rental car place was when we had booked everything 2 months prior! Went straight back to the airport where H had got the number working. The company had rebranded a week prior and everything was ok, phew.

We loaded up and headed off to meet the estate agent at our new (rental) house. The agent was wonderful and she had helped us find a great place to live while we were still in New Zealand. The house is a groovy Eichler home in a quiet leafy suburb, handy to everything including great schools for the kids. She had also borrowed one of everything and set up the house so that we didn’t need to buy anything on day one, a fantastic way to arrive in a foreign country.

Went out for a classic American burger (it’s the law on your first day to have one), but it was somewhat ordinary. A place called In’N'Out Burger, sounded more like a bad porno movie than a food joint.

We were exhausted and slept well.