28^th December, 2015

Even though we were going to sleep in, we were up at 6.30am and in those fabulous showers!!! We both had them to ourselves and we might have spent a few extra minutes under the fabulous water pressure! We were on a very strict time frame as today we have to get the van back to Christchurch for midday – otherwise they charge us $500.

We started to pack up our bags and I fed the chickens & the Weka for the last time to get rid of the bread. Steve then took the van over to the “dump station” - yeah, that was an experience! Lol It's great having the convenience of the toilet in the RV, but you have to remove the waste yourself! Lol Anyway – it was all good… mostly because I had nothing to do with it!! ha ha ha

We were on the road for 8.15am and I was on a mission to get back to the Lupins for more photos with the morning sun. I was hoping it to be a much earlier depature time, but we lost a lot of time at the dump station.

We stopped over the Viaduct to look back at the bridge - was quite spectacular!

The lupins looked so pretty in the late morning sun, and I was given a 10min window to get my photos. I raced down in amongst them and get up the tripod and started shooting. I couldn't see anything in the back of the LCD screen due to the sun, so I was hoping I had my settings alright! Lol Steve was done within 3 mins and was back in the van…. I was there until he was yelling at me to get back in the van. I could have done with another 3 or 4 hours there if I am honest – just to be amongst such natural beauty was intoxicating. I feel so very lucky to have experienced this. Lupins are supposed to be out in November, so to think it was late December, we were lucky.

(I am going to plant millions of lupins at home!) lol

We then headed back up Arthurs Pass and then into Christchurch. We had to have the van back for Midday, and we were there for 11.15am. We then packed everything back into our suitcases and caught the shuttle bus to the airport.

We checked in, dropped off our bags and then we boarded the NZ flight to Auckland. Bye Bye South Island…. I'll be back – soon!

No window seat this time and I had a guy who wasn't even looking out through the window next to me, but hogged it from me being able to look out. I did managed to see the snow capped volcano and we were on the other side of it heading up and it would have been the perfect photo – damn it. Nevermind. But I do want to photograph this from the ground next time we come back.

The landing was the best landing I have ever experienced – I even got to meet the Captain and I thanked him for the softest landing ever and his awesome commentary as we left the South Island! What a guy!

Graeme picked us up from Auckland Airport From the time we got our luggage and Graeme picked us up, I had already formulated a business plan to enable us to move to NZ – Wanaka and earn a living! Ha ha ha

We are staying with Graeme & Geri in their new home in South Auckland. Its their son Michael's 18^th Birthday today, so we all went out for dinner with their friends and then came back to the house and the kids “drank” because they could, and the adults talked – and drank. Next thing I knew, Steve wanted to go to bed, and it was 3am! Lol Oooh this is going to hurt in the morning!

I did suggest that we just stay up and find somewhere to photograph sunrise, but the lack of vehicle and the grumpy tired Steve didn't seem to think that was a good idea! Ha ha ha  Nitey Nite!!