Hello everyone. Sorry this took a bit longer, we really were waiting for the suspense here. Umm. So first let me start off by saying that Sydney was a blast. But before we got across the world we had a 14 hour layover in San Fran, which we had earlier thought was only 3 hours, so that called for a quick change of plans and we walked around the Wharf and waited for my older sister Sierra to drive with her 2 toddlers to meet us. So that was a real blessing because we hadn’t seen then since the wedding and weren’t going to until we don’t know when. But the flights were all really good, we slept enough and sat enough.
Back to Sydney, we found a cheap hotel online and booked it, during the day it seemed as if it were just a cutsy little neighborhood, but during night we found out it was right next to a bunch of strip clubs. So that was good, we ate at McDonalds about 3 times, which was delicious. Saw the Sydney Opera House and the Bridge, forgot the name. We also saw the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful, but they had these huge fruit bats hanging everywhere, they were HUGE. But that was about it, we walked around a lot to downtown and just looked around and relaxed a lot, which was nice. Onto New Zealand.
Our DTS is located in Tauranga, but for the first 4 weeks we are staying at a base about 40 minutes away in Matamata. This is because our ship that we are going to be staying on is going to be out on outreach from the last DTS and then it has to be dry-docked for repairs. So we will be moving over in just a bit. Here in Matamata it is very very cold, and they don’t have heaters inside the main buildings, only our rooms. Which we aren’t in very much except for a few hours each day. So its just a cold where you never quite get warm enough. But anyway, we have our work duties for the first week and I have vacuuming the kitchen and Andy is stuck with dishes after lunch. On the DTS there are a total of 13 students and 5 staff. There is another married couple besides us doing the DTS. This is the first week so we are just doing orientation and getting to know each other and it’s just going very well. It is a beautiful place and a great group of people, we’re excited for the months to come.
We will post pictures sometime on picasa and I’m sure another post will soon follow. Love everyone and hope you’re all enjoying your nice weather!
Andy & Heidi Stuhlmiller
