Update
Overdue. Looooong overdue. But because of time issues (with a reason, see below), I will keep myself short.
We're back in Switzerland since almost two months. The rest of the trip was great too - we had a fantastic time in and around Auckland and then went up to Northland for some beach, snorkeling & diving fun. In Auckland, we stayed with Esther & Dominik who were so kind to share their flat with us for a couple of days. Those were fantastic days, and we will never forget having eaten one of the best Röstis in NZ! After a very relaxing flight to San Francisco (Air NewZealand still beats them all), we first spent some time with Lee & Etienne & Lionel (just two days old at that time), and then later moved south to our future homebase, San Jose CA. There, we met (in vivo) with a couple of people who we met (in silico) on couchsurf.com. We took the time in San Jose to check out some neighbourhoods and we now know where to look for flats.
In the meanwhile, Rahel also got her funding from the Swiss Science Foundation, and after some initial confusion around the whole visa process, we finally have an appointment (next Monday the 14th) at the US embassy in Bern. If everything runs smoothly from now on, we should be in California in about 3 weeks (which means we're busy organizing everything). Looking at the weatherforecast for San Jose for the next few days (29 C, 29 C, 29 C, 30 C) makes me think we made the right decision!