Let's get started! New Zealand, here we come.

Today (Tuesday, 28th January 2020) is finally the day. The four of us - Tim, Vanessa, Mattis, and Lea - are starting our big journey to New Zealand. Now it really hits you that it's happening. Before, you always thought, 'Oh well, there's still some time until the trip' and now it's here. We are super excited and full of anticipation for everything that awaits us on the other side of the world.

Oma Elke and Opa Ingo have been visiting since Sunday to say goodbye to us one last time. It's nice, especially for Mattis and Lea, to see their grandparents again before we are gone for a whole 3 months.

Oma Elke will take us to Cologne Central Station and from there we will take the train to Frankfurt/Main Airport. Our flight departs tonight at 8:30 pm. We are flying with Emirates on the A380. None of us have ever flown on an A380 before, so we are really excited to see what the flight will be like on this giant aircraft. As Mattis says, 'We're flying with the jumbo jet, the biggest airplane in the world... Up in the air and off to New Zealand.' Mattis is already looking forward to the flight. I wonder if he knows that a 29.5-hour flight awaits him... With a short layover in Dubai and a refueling stop in Sydney, we will hopefully land in Christchurch after that time. We have a really long journey ahead of us. But so far, we are all relaxed. Let's hope it stays that way.

Alright, let's get started now. We'll update you from New Zealand in the coming days.