Day 75 - Tuesday 19th March 2024

Today is very much an admin and preparation day. The only plan that I had for this day in Christchurch was a contingency in case I'd not been able to visit Mount Sunday on my first stay a few weeks ago, and as I was able to do that as planned then the contingency became redundant.

So, when the alarm went of at 06:00 this morning, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I finally arose at 08:00 and started making a bit of a plan for today. At the moment the contents of my luggage are strewn across the room, and I needed to get some laundry done, so just after 09:00 the laundry went in, and at 11:00 it was all clean and folded on the bed.

While this was being done, I sorted out the rail tickets back to Norwich on my return in a couple of months. This feels wrong on so many levels, but if the rest of the trip is anything to go by it'll be happening before I know it.

I then decided that I should really get out of the room, so wandered along Columbo Street to a barber and had a haircut. I'd also spotted the city centre Ezi location nearby, so I wandered there to get more information about where I needed to drop my car off tomorrow at Christchurch airport.   

A stop off on the way back for a coffee, and then I went onto the Air New Zealand website to select a seat for tomorrows flight; I've gone for a window on the 3 hour 35 minute flight to try to get some footage, otherwise the blog and vlog may be a bit light on content.

With this being my last day in New Zealand, I spent a chunk of the afternoon reviewing the New Zealand trip. As well as the blog, I have a hand written diary that I'm keeping and I've reviewed that to remind myself of what I've done. For me, it beggars belief that I've been here for two months. I may have said this before, but time is a strange phenomenon. It feels like only a few days since I arrived, but some of the things I've done and seen seem like an age ago.

New Zealand was the main reason for this trip, and it feels very odd that the kiwi leg is coming to an end. So, time for a bit of a retrospective perhaps. I was asked a week or two ago what my favourite bit had been, and I'd have to say all of it really. Yes, there have been some highlights and some things that I read back today and thought 'oh yes, I did that'. There is an old phrase about not being able to see the woods for the trees, and that's the way I think I feel about New Zealand at the moment. The sheer quantity of things I've done and seen need some time and perspective to reflect on, but to answer your question Ben ....

Best walk/hike - The Hooker Valley track in Mount Cook National Park by a country mile, not because the others were not awesome, but because that was in a whole league of it's own .... only comparable in my experience with hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out in a day.

Best paid experience - I've done some fantastic things that I've paid for, but the one that leaves the lasting memory is Hobbiton. I made no secret of the fact that I was coming to find as many Lord of the Rings locations as possible, but walking into Hobbiton through that sunken road and having the scene open up in front of me was unforgettable.

Most spectacular scenery - I don't think that there is a part of New Zealand that isn't spectacular in it's own way, but Doubtful Sound takes some beating. Just when I'd done Milford Sound and thought that was the best you could get, along comes a trip to Doubtful Sound to put it in the shade!

Best accommodation - there are two places I cannot separate. Coromandel Town because the place was just paradise with a sunset to die for, and Curio Bay because just sitting watching the surf from my room was such an unexpected pleasure, and somewhere I hadn't originally planned to be (thanks P!nk for playing Dunedin so I got to stay here).

If there are any other 'bests' you'd like to know about, message me ..... I've deliberately left out waterfalls as you'll know by now that I do love a waterfall and there are just too many to talk about.

The time reached 16:30, so it was time for my last dinner of the trip so I made my way back to The Victoria and repeated last nights Bangers and Mash along with my final New Zealand beers. They do  hazy IPA which is fantastic, and I'm sure that I'll miss it going forward ... it's something we need to find in the UK!

Well, I didn't have anything else worthy of a photo today. I'm all checked in now for the flight  tomorrow to Sydney, Australia. I've still not given Australia a lot of thought (although I do have a daily plan of what to see). It's seemed a long way away, and suddenly it's tomorrow ... how the hell did that happen? So much to look forward to still. 

More from the centre of Sydney tomorrow as I try to figure out again just where I am compared to UK time!