Tuesday - (we skipped Monday)

The flight back to Auckland was relatively smooth. We had a meal just after midnight while we both watched a movie and dozed a wee bit.

We arrived in Auckland around 2am and whizzed through the immigration process without having our bags opened. The next thing was to drop our bags off for the flight Christchurch but it turns out that a) the domestic terminal doesn't open to the public until 4:30am and b) the bag drop at the International Terminal doesn't open until 5am. There was nothing for it but to hunker down with everyone else and wait till then. The only open Café provided us with a coffee and blueberry muffin.

At 5am we fronted up at the Bag Drop but the staff didn't actually start serving us until 5:10. At which time I was told that since it was less than an hour to our flight, they couldn't take them but could book us on the next flight!

Feeling a wee bit pissed off I opted to get us and the bags to the Domestic terminal via the free shuttle. Luckily there was one sitting at the Bus Stop when we got there and, with very little traffic around, we made it to the terminal by about 5:25. The bag drop for our flight closed at 5:30!!! Hoping we wouldn't get shut out, I rushed off with our two suitcases and managed to get them processed just in time. Then it was a mad dash through security and onwards to our boarding gate. We got there just as the last passengers were walking down the air bridge. Feeing somewhat relieved, we settled in to our seats for the flight to Christchurch.

That flight was quite bumpy due to the passing thunder storms but we duly arrived in Christchurch after nearly 24 hours of travelling with no sleep.

After retrieving the car from Airpark Canterbury, we headed for a great Café in Christchurch called Unknown Chapter and had a yummy breakfast of a poached egg on smashed avocado with feta and wonderful seedy bread.

Before heading back to Kaikoura we made a quick stop at Miriam's optician to pick up the new lenses for her glasses. These have made a big difference to her vision.

At Amberley we stocked up on a few essential provisions at Woolworths before driving north.

It was raining  heavily when we got to the golf course so we stopped in for a quick beer/wine with our golf buddies. They had just abandoned their round after 9 holes because none of them will play in the rain.

Then it was off home where we unpacked, had dinner of chicken and salad and collapsed into bed around 8pm.

What we were amazed at was that we had been travelling for over 36 hours by then with no proper sleep and felt remarkably good.

That's it for this blog.


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