We're back!

It was a great holiday and the fact that there was no teaching, cooking, cleaning etc was the icing on the cake! Since I'd left it until late to book flights we had to go with Cathay Pacific via Taiwan with a one hour stop, then Hong Kong with 5 hours before arriving in Auckland but since it was at the beginning of the journey it was okay albeit a bit boring having to stay in HK airport for that length of time. We spent the first 4 days with my sister in Auckland and then headed off to the South Island to visit Kana. To get there we had to fly from Auckland to Wellington and then Wellington to Timaru and I couldn't believe the size of the last plane - there were 10 rows of two seats and it was probably the size of a small minibus although maybe a bit longer!

Kana's host family was lovely and because they gave us the loan of one of their cars, we could go exploring the area. Their house in Geraldine is on the top of a hill with a 360 degree panoramic view of mountains and rolling hills. Kana had school that week (we didn't dare take her out for any longer) so we paid a visit there and also went to Christchurch for the day where we met up with Kana's advisor for lunch and went to a small wildlife centre.

We took Kana back to Auckland and did all our dreaded souvenir shopping and generally chilled out with Steph and co. Stephanie was working some of the time so we usually went to Auckland by ferry which was much nicer than the traffic jams. Auckland hasn't really changed since I was over 4 years ago but there are so many Asian faces, voices etc that you could almost forget you are in NZ.

We also managed to go and visit Lisa's homestay family and it was just as well we did because they are moving to Australia next month. We now have an invite to the Gold Coast so we have another destination/country to choose from - loads of destinations, just no time!

When we got to the airport for our return journey we found that our flight to HK had been cancelled due to a typhoon. Because of having to stand in a huge queue to try to get alternative flights, we couldn't go with Kana to see her off but luckily Stephanie was there to help her out and we managed to get on a ANZ/JAL direct flight to Osaka 45 minutes later. It shaved off 4 hours of our flight time and the meals were much better too!

Now that we're back, it's the same old routine for me but at least I'm feeling a lot more refreshed - wonder how long it's going to last!