Home sweet home

After 3686.3 km of tootling around the countryside in the car, we are finally home. I don't like to be the whingy type, but I was quite relieved to leave the 36 degree heat of Christchurch on Friday, and swap it or Dunedin's 14 degrees and rain.

A few holiday highlights...

Christmas with family in Palmerston North.
The pohutukawa trees in flower in Wellington.
Taking the kids on the electric train into Wellington city and discovering the Wellington Railway Station has a platform 9 3/4
Riding on the miniature trains in Havelock North.
Riding on the miniature railway in Palmerston North.
Looking at the model railway near Mt Bruce.
(This holiday featured a lot of trains)
Feijoa Rush Munro icecream in Hawkes Bay.
Seeing someone in the waiting room at the Wellesley Rd Medical Centre in Napier reading Overkill. (Don't ask why we were there!)
The meercats at Wellington zoo.
Hand feeding the giraffes at Orana Park in Christchurch.
Seeing the coracle the survivors of the Dundonald shipwreck built and sailed in between Disappointment Island and Auckland Island over 100 years ago. Go see it at the Christchurch museum.

Biggest disappointment:

They've replaced the wonderful old two-level one-way bridge on State Highway 1 near Seddon, where the cars go underneath on the rickety wooden roadway and the trains on top. I'd spent the half hour before we got to it telling the kids how cool it was going on a bridge where the trains trundled above you, building up their anticipation and then we get to it and ... disappointed!

Anyway, here we are at home, the laundry is dealt with, the car emptied out of bags, toys, a large assortment of feathers found on the way and numerous chocolate wrappers. The mail's been collected from the neighbours including a few more Christmas cards and pressies and the Sunday newspapers the dopey folk delivered despite me putting them on hold. The cat has been picked up from the boarding kennels and won't let us out of her sight.

It's back to the real world.