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And so we flew out of Auckland for Melbourne. It was quite sad leaving New Zealand and also leaving the travels behind. Six months on the road, almost to the day had resulted in many great adventures. Buenos Aires to Melbourne with all the stops in between. And so, I will take a break from the blog for awhile…occasional updates may pop up once we are all settled but for now it’s bye bye hostels, hello back to reality!!!

From Wellington we all drove back to Auckland. After two nights there, the others left for Melbourne and Carmel and I set off for Ruawai to visit the farm. Here we had a great couple of days staying with Denise and Gwynn. The first evening we climbed up Toka Toka hill to view the surrounding area before a drink in the local bar. A delicious BBQ steak followed before a great night’s sleep in our non-hostel beds!

The next morning, we were up early to milk the cows (and help with taking milk samples!) before a great breakfast. We then set off on our day trip, with Gwynn and Denise showing us all the sites – Kai Iwi Lakes, The Big Tree, Opunoni beach for lunch, Ohawie, Maurua, Whangerei for Hamish’s (their grandson’s) birthday dinner and then home for another good night’s sleep!

Another great breakfast followed the next morning before we went off for a drive around the farm with Gwynn. The 1983 truck below was an adventure to drive! All too quickly we had to head back to Auckland and prepare for our flight to Oz the next day!

Our first day in Wellington was Fiona’s last day with us in New Zealand. In true tradition, the day was spent eating, shopping, more eating and drinking. We also went the museum which is definitely worth a visit and went for dinner that night in “Sweet Mother’s Kitchen” for delicious quesadillas, chicken wings, nachos and cocktails.

And so the first day of the sevens arrived. Although Rugby sevens events take place all around the world, (including Kinsale every May) the difference in Wellington is that everyone dresses up in true all out fashion. We had been thinking about our costumes weeks beforehand so we had everything ready to go. The first day was spent dressed up as Grecian Goddesses – so impressive we were too that we got our photo into the paper!

The second day was spent covered in blue body paint, dressed as the smurfs! All though we were not the only smurf troupe there it was great fun for the day, especially seeing people’s reactions when walking through town.

Both days, the atmosphere at the stadium was great with everyone walking around in their costumes, making fun of other groups and enjoying themselves, and from time to time watching some rugby. After the competition every day, the crowd spilled back into town, where all the bars were jam packed for the night – a tiring but very enjoyable two days!

Arriving in Picton, we checked into Atlantis Backpackers and brought our bags into our 24 bed dorm (a record I think – it wasn’t as bad as it sounded though, with all the beds sectioned off well). The next morning, Ciara, myself and Claire set off to walk the first part of the Queen Charlotte Track. It is a really nice walk, especially on a sunny day like we had. We stopped for a picnic at one of the small coves. It is possible to do the entire walk over 3 or 4 days, including some nights camping and it’s something I’d like to come back to do in New Zealand.

Another day in Picton so we did the snout track walk – a couple of hours along the headland, and then went to the cinema as we were hanging around for the ferry to Wellington that evening. The ferry crossing was grand that evening and we the YHA hostel without any trouble, then headed straight to bed.

Having been unable to book on a trip our first time in Kaikoura, we headed back there from Christchurch. We stayed in Dusky Lodge again, and had an early night to prepare for our 4.50am start the next morning.

Despite the early morning, the trip was great. There were hundreds of dolphins in the water that morning. The captain would stop the boat once he saw a group of dolphins and then we would all hop out of the boat in our snorkel gear and swim towards the dolphins. They are attracted to sound so all of us had to sing through our snorkels to attract them further. Four or five swam right past my face. It was great seeing them swimming and jumping in the water after we had finished our snorkelling, and the sunrise that morning on the boat completed the trip.