Back in Fukushima

Last Friday we set off from Nelson on the first leg of our trip home. Amelia took her first flight from Nelson to Auckland. She was asleep the whole way and didn't even make a peep taking off or landing. We had two huge bags and a large carry on and were helped by some nice men who were on our plane to get everything off the luggage carousel. Then we checked in at our hotel. I do recommend the new Novotel at Auckland airport. It is literally 2 minutes away from the international terminal, which is so much easier than waiting for a shuttle to your hotel that might be miles from anywhere to have dinner etc. 

The next day I was up at 5am and we checked in for our flight early (me thinking I would not like to caught up in a huge line with tiny baby). When we got to the check in area it was practically deserted but I still got ushered to the business class lane and our bags got priority tags on them!

Then we went through customs and security in about 5 minutes flat as we were ushered into the lines for special people/crew etc! If I had known this would happen I would have stayed in bed a little longer!

Air NZ outdid themselves with service again this time, though it was a bit frustrating being seated in a row with another family even though the plane was less than half full. I did move us down to a free row with a bassinet later on which was much better. The crew on the plane helped me carry our bags all the way to customs, which at Narita is miles away from where the air nz plane parks up. At customs we got ushered through a special line and then our bags were already there when we got to the luggage carousel, the air nz crew had picked it up for us and put it on a trolley and then a little JAL lady helped us to get through customs! Through all of this Amelia was a little star and everyone commented on how good she was.

DH was waiting for us and so we got in the car and headed back to Iwaki, a 3 hour drive away.

Unfortunately for us Amelia was pretty over it by then and screamed for quite a while but we couldn't stop as we were on the highway and there were no service areas. Turned out she had pooped her pants about the second we got on the highway :(

So eventually we got home, luckily Iwaki has been quite cool since we have been back, though I am still not really coping with the heat, especially with having to feed Amelia and keep her hydrated as well as myself.

The night we got back, there was a huge earthquake at 3am. A low 5 here which is pretty big. I had just put Amelia back to bed and was just nodding off when there was an almighty shake. I leaped up and grabbed her out of her bed and ran down stairs...not sure why, just did. I guess I feel safer on the ground floor. So we are getting on with our life here. DH has been working but managed to get home before 6 the first two nights this week, which was really nice. Still waiting for him to come home tonight at it's 9pm though :( 

Tomorrow a friend is coming over to see us and bringing her geiger counter to see what the radiation levels are like here at our house. I now live in a city where people have such things. More on this later.