Alan flew home one hour ahead of me. We connected in San Francisco and flew home together.
We left 32 K Down Under

last night

The open air cinema in Sydney was the perfect event to end our Australian odyssey. Since it was Valentines Day, the movie was "Love and Other Drugs". It wasn't memorable but the setting was spectacular. We had a delicious meal and a bottle of wine, after a very kind Japanese girl gave me her ticket for free. We walked back to the hotel from the waterfront.

Down Under finale

Through the Botanical Gardens and out to Mrs McQuarries point. Beautiful flowers...lotus blossoms the size of dinner plates and eels in the pond, a meter long. We discovered a movie theater set up beside the harbour with the screen on a platform on the water. We will try and get tickets as our Valentines treat, tonight. Then fly away home tomorrow.

Cheers mates...Judith and Alan

back to the beginning

We're really are going out in fine style. We had to find our own accommodation for these last two nights and this is what we settled on. Oh boy. Imagine standing at the bottom of those stairs with 6 pieces of luggage. Ugh. But it's fine and well located and clean. We've been down to the waterfront, exchanged a defective suitcase purchased here almost 5 months ago, bought some wine and breakfast food, got Alan's murse repaired and caught up with emails. We have found the little hotels provide free Wifi and the big hotels charge a fortune. We were hoping to spend the last day on Bondi Beach but it's overcast and drizzly so no chance. We'll just chill out. Transitioning back to reality is a challenge to be met.

final leg

The 7 hour drive from Queenstown to Christchurch was full of expansive scenery. The mountain tops were shrouded in cloud so we missed some of the spectacle but what we did see we loved. The broad expanses appeal to our prairie hearts. We won't miss the price of petrol (about $1.65/litre).
BAck in Christchurch we handed in our car and spent a fair bit of time sorting our luggage. We had to eliminate 5 lbs each (the hotel had an electronic hand scale which was very helpful). We parted with our much loved coffee maker and coffee mugs, cereal bowls, cutlery, extra shampoo, books...all went to Salvation Army.
This morning we were up at 0300 to get to the airport for our 0600 flight. And a good thing we were there early. At check in, we learned our Australian Visas had expired. Alan had checked prior to the flight and thought we would be ok but NOT. Panic on my part at the counter! But we were directed to a computer and given a site to apply for new Visa and Yayyy, were approved and got on the plane. My friend Gwyneth had wanted some NZ grass (which I picked) but after listening to the overhead announcements about plants and animal products(I also had some raw wool), verboten and jail, I disposed of them (except for one blade of grass...but don't tell anyone). What a wimp I am. So here we are, back in Sydney.

farewell Queenstown

We set our tomorrow morning for our last day of driving...to Christchurch, about 7 1/2 hours. We're trying to absorb every last morsel of warmth and sunshine that we can. We're there for 2 nights and catch our flight back to Sydney at 0600, what a ghastly time. Hardly much point in even going to bed that night! Anyway, NZ has been terrific!

repeat trip to Glenorchy

But this time, it wasn't pouring rain and we could see the breathtaking scenery we'd missed. There were huge glaciers on this mountain and several more snow capped peaks were visible in the distance. It was in this region that some of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed.
On our drive to this area, we passed a film crew that was shooting something.