As you said, I decided to use the past complete tense. Will you do me a favor and check the tense? In my view, the first two thirds seems okay. Please check the last two paragraphs.
   While Chakhans family had stayed at luxury hotels, Jisu had studied how to rent a studio apartment in a new land.
   While they had watched the Maori put on a show in traditional costumes, she had researched the cultures of the new land where she wanted to live indefinitely.
   While they had attended sheep shows in the Agrodome with people from all over the world, she had wondered how to get along with the residents of the place where she had chosen to settle.
   While they had strolled in the Parnell Rose Gardens inhaling the fragrance of thousands of roses, she had paced in her house alone, deciding what to take from the assorted contents of her drawers, when Brad and the children had gone out to buy back-to-school supplies.
   While Chakhan and his family had enjoyed a casual conversation at a lakeside restaurant, she had wept at the thought of leaving her son and daughter.
   While they had burst into exclamations of wonder at the miraculous geysers and boiling mud pools in Rotorua, she had burst into tears because fate had played such a cruel trick on her.