Bye bye New Zealand

Our last day in Christchurch, and in New Zealand. The morning saw us in the Canterbury Museum looking at Maori exhibits, a recreation of Christchurch from the 1860s, a section on Antarctic exploration, and the best bit, an area about Air New Zealand with mock-ups of cabins from the 50s and 60s, a display of air hostess uniforms, and a "cabin of the future" with virtual reality headsets on each seat, which Jemima enjoyed so much we did it twice. Then the afternoon included a trip to the hairdresser for Kevin, and a lot of fun in a play area for Jemima. No energy left to do more, we retired to the Motel; we feel like we've done New Zealand now.

And it has been brilliant. We have:

- seen or walked through rainforest, Redwood forest, pine forest, native forest;

- played on white beaches, gold beaches, grey beaches, black beaches;

- sailed in a ferry, cruise boat, fishing boat, and kayak, on sea, inland sea, coastline and river;

- driven through farmland, vineyards, national park, and wild land, up and down mountains, along coasts and around an island;

- travelled the Thermal Highway, the Great Coast Road and the Great Alpine Highway;

- experienced fog, rain, wind, sun (all in one day), and seen snow;

- swum in thermal pools, a river, the Tasman and South Pacific seas, and a freezing swimming pool;

- walked swingbridges in the treetops, and over gorges and rivers;

- drunk local wine in a vineyard and eaten mussels harvested and cooked ourselves;

- seen three cities, four museums, a car collection, a coal mine, a Maori village, a Botanic Garden, an aquarium, geysers, and a cemetery;

- driven about 1500 miles (or rather Kevin has);

- and collected many sticks!

And now we are in Sydney. A morning of packing; an easy three hour lunch time flight; a slightly annoying wait for our transfer; and we are now in our next hotel in central Sydney, having had dinner round the corner in Chinatown - with temperatures of 42 degrees forecast for tomorrow! New Zealand was wonderful; bring it on, Oz!