Last few days before home

So the last couple of days in New Zealand were pretty tiring and we were ready to make our way home.  We were at Lake Tekapo for a couple of days which was just beautiful (as you can see from the picture below).  The whole place is just so awe inspiringly beautiful it's difficult to know where to point the camera! There were some hot springs again near the campsite - within walking distance - so across we went.  There was also 'tubing' for the kids to do - basically tobogganing on a rubber ring.  Needless to say I enjoyed a glass of wine by the fire while they were up to that.  Then in to the hot springs.

This is a couple of videos of the kids tubing.  While they were doing it, a film crew turned up who were making a film about New Zealand - they asked permission to film the kids, which of course they thoroughly enjoyed - particularly Christopher.  We have contact details for when the film is finished - should be interesting.  Hopefully I will be able to post on here when it's done.

So a quick hot chocolate and something to eat to warm up after the tubing, then into the hot pools :-)

Hot Chocolate to die for!

Once we left Tekapo, it was then a straight drive to Oamaru (and the final leg back up to Christchurch).  We saw a colony of blue penguins there - apparently the smallest and most rare penguins in the world.  We saw them come in out of the sea and hop their way up the shingle beach back to their nests - very sweet.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures as the flash from the cameras damages their eyes.  I've grabbed a photo off the internet just to give you an idea of what we saw.

This was the last 'touristy' thing we did before we drove up to Christchurch stopping at Akaroa on the way.  We stopped overnight at Christchurch and dropped into the shopping centre for dinner.  Holly picked up some clothes as a 'treat' from Nana Jo.

Thanks for the new clothes Nana!

Alex has chosen to buy more books from amazon from nana and will order when she gets home.

So from Christchurch, fly back to the gold coast Australia - one overnight (with travel authority in our hand!), Australia to Kuala Lumpur - one overnight in KL, KL to Brunei.  Phew!  I need a holiday to recover from our holiday!

All in all, it may sound 'cliche', but we really did have the holiday of a lifetime.  It probably is, realistically, the last 'big expensive' holiday we will have now that we have chosen to grow up a little bit and get a mortgage!