Clan Haley

Christchurch and a flight to Auckland

Overnight (our last night before needing to pack to fly) we had some rain. Typical eh? Luckily we awoke to glorious blue skys and some nice warmth. So we took the tent down, and left it to dry in the sun while we ate a slightly odd breakfast (leftovers).

We made the lovely drive back down the coast towards Christchurch. Our aim was to make it to the Margaret Mahy Playground in the centre of the city. I had read that it is one of the largest (and coolest) playgrounds in the southern hemisphere. We made it there just in the time for a spot of lunch at a near by cafe where James ate scambled eggs and bacon. James has been on a bit of an egg kick in the last few months after Grandma Gilman introduced him to dippy eggs. I don't think scambled has taken the top spot, but he loved it just the same. After lunch we spent the next hour and a half exploring all the cool slides, climbing frames and sandpits in the park. We avoided the excellent looking splash pad as we had a flight to catch and we couldn't deal with wet clothes.

We got the car dropped off, bags checked in and through security in plenty of time befoe a short 1 hour flight back up to Auckland. We picked up a different hire car and stopped for a cheeky Maccas on the way to our Christmas residence.

Its safe to say our 2 week road trip round the South Island was a great success. We got pretty lucky with the weather and managed to squeeze almost everything (other than star gazing) in.