The Good......
One of our biggest fears about coming home was how Joshua would be on the plane. Turned out that we had nothing to worry about. Apart from a 10 minute screaming session as we waited for the plane to take off from Tokyo, he was great! He slept off and on all night and was bright and happy when we arrived (unlike us!). His other plane trips (to and from Wellington, and back to Japan) were also very stress free as he enjoyed playing with his toys, feeding and sleeping.
Of course it was so great to see all the family. Joshua has now met all his relatives and formed quite a bond with some of them. This was the main reason to come back home, so everyone could see Joshua while he's still a baby. We got to do many things with the family that hadn't been done for years. Mike's 40th and Jack's birthday were fun affairs, as were our trip to the zoo, our (unsuccessful) fishing trip, and late nights playing cards.
It was also great to catch up with friends, although this was a bit limited in time. At least we managed to get everyone together for a BBQ at the same time. Hopefully some of you guys will come over here sometime for another catchup!
Joshua's christening was a great day. Although it's not legally official (and probably won't be for a while), his name is now Joshua Takashi Trotter. It was so nice to see the aunties and uncle that made the trip and spend the afternoon catching up.
Didn't think I'd talk to three All Blacks on my holiday, but I did! The first was Richard Kahui in the hospitality box at Waikato Stadium, where we were invited by Brian and Clare to watch Waikato v. Nth. Harbour (good game too). Aki was wondering why I didn't introduce her to my "friend", only finding out later that he was a rugby player. A couple of days later I was shopping in the Frankton markets and came across Liam Meesam selling T-shirts. Ended up buying one from him too! And then, on the plane trip back to Japan, lo and behold, who should be sitting across the aisle from me - none other than ex-All Black captain Reuben Thorne! He's currently playing rugby in Japan and in case you were wondering, he won't be making it to the Tokyo test, as he'll be back in NZ at that time.
The Bad........
Maybe I've been in Japan for too long, but the service received in some places were shocking. I won't go into details, but buying a new computer gave me a customer experience similar to being walked over by a cow with diarrhea - in both Dick Smith and Bond & Bond, I was treated like shit - and here was me handing over a grand for the service! Anyway, won't be shopping in either of those places again. A few other shops offered similar services - no smiles, no offers to help and barely a grunt out of them when you buy something. Quite different to Japan where some places actually have people bow to you when you leave the store and they stay there until you're out of sight!
We'd just bought a new camera about three months ago, after our other one died. Apparently, expensive digital cameras don't like us, as our new one decided to die just after we arrived in Wellington, five days into our trip. Steve came to the rescue as he lent us his camera for the rest of our trip, but apparently the jinx has continued, as his memory card was somehow corrupted, so the majority of our photo's seem to have been lost! When we returned the camera in Japan they gave us a brand new one on the spot, and so far it hasn't died.......yet!
& The Ugly........
"The weather's been absolutely beautiful", "It's been so warm lately", "Looks like summers coming" - these were the various things we heard about the weather before coming to NZ. In retrospect, it seems like someone was playing a cruel joke, as it rained all but 2 or 3 days while we were home. Unfortunately, it was just bad timing, but it did really put a dampener on the trip as we were limited to what we could do being stuck inside for most of the time. Now Aki has experienced an NZ winter (albeit in Spring), to go along with the autumn and spring she had previously seen. I'm thinking a January/February trip is on the cards for next time......
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