That those particular Friday and Monday were holidays
worked out well for Bryan and Jane for the Saturday in between was their move-in day. For nearly two weeks they had been living out of their suitcases in hotels around Auckland, first in the cramped Hotel Formulae 1 right downtown and then in the student apartment complex Columbia nearer the University. They were both looking forward to having a place of their own again, somewhere to come home to, even though they wouldn't have much to decorate the place with seeing as most of their worldly possessions were packed in a container on a boat floating along somewhere in the Pacific.
Most of the shops in town were closed on Good Friday - Kiwis may, over all, be a secular people, but they know how to legislate for a religious holiday. Bryan and Jane spent much of the day packing up their hotel room, taking a break at 3:30pm to attend services at the Catholic Church in their new neighborhood, St. John's of Parnell (not that the patron St. John was from Parnell but that that is where the church stands - there is no St. John of Parnell, as far as we know). The church was tiny, holding probably 100 people at most, and that would be pushing it. The Good Friday service only attracted 20 to 30 people, though, so there was no fear of being overcrowded. Satisfied enough with the congregation there, Bryan and Jane decided to join them again the next day for Easter Vigil. As Bryan pointed out, there's was probably the first Easter celebration in the world - 5:30pm in the first time zone.
On Saturday morning, Bryan and Jane awoke early to check out of their hotel (at last!) and run some necessary errands before meeting their new landlord at 4
pm to move into their apartment. First on the list of necessary things that must move into the apartment with them was a TV followed very closely by a grill. They also made a stop at the Kiwi Wal-Mart equivalent The Warehouse to pick up some sheets and towels as well as a few pieces of plastic dinnerware and some cleaning products. Their new landlord had told them that they could use an old futon mattress of his to sleep on, and the previous tenants were leaving a few things that they might also find useful. At least they knew that they wouldn't have to sleep on the floor.
Scott and Sarah, the previous tenants, were slow movers, and so Bryan and Jane ended up parking their car, laden with everything they had in the Southern Hemisphere, at their new place and
walking to Easter Vigil Mass. Had it been a regular Sunday Mass, Bryan and Jane would not have been too surprised to be leaving the church just over an hour after entering, but for an Easter Vigil, which generally takes two or more hours, blinking into the sun at 6:40pm was not what they had expected. Filled with the light of Easter, Bryan and Jane made their way the mile back to their new home. Scott and Sarah were shoving the last bits of their material lives into a beat-up Fiat as they walked up the street. With those two gone, their new landlord Greg led them into what was now, officially, their place.
*For those interested in the truly unusual, check out either the Wikipedia entry or the web page of Bryan and Jane's landlord Greg Hallett.*
