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January 30th 2010

Published: February 7th 2010

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Karen away

Christchurch

On the way to Lyttleton

My first stop in NZ was Christchurch to see Sarah, Ian and their gorgeous daughter Lily (and Dory the crazy deaf cat!). I met Sarah travelling in Australia 10 yrs ago. It was pretty cold after being in Australia so the flipflops and shorts went away and i had to start wearing jeans and jumpers again! Had some lovely days out, went to Lyttleton and Akaroa on the Banks peninsula, thankfully the sun came out for a few minutes each day! I got a new Tattoo, well Ian is a tattooist so it would have been silly not to! My last day the sun finally came out properly, we went to Willowbank to see Kiwi's and other native NZ animals and managed to fit in a bbq before i had to get my flight to Auckland.
My next stop was with Becky, a friend i met on safari in Africa. She now lives in a lovely house with gorgeous views of the Manakau harbour, south of Auckland. We went for some lovely walks at Kariotahi and Glenbrook beaches. We had a lovely day of lunch, followed by a massage, followed by a fun night of 80' music, Pool and a bottle

Christchurch

On the way to Lyttleton

of Sambuca!
Then to Auckand to stay with my Godfather, Gavin, who i'd not seen for 10yrs! We had some lovely days out at Matakana market and Kelly Tarltons underwater world.
I then headed to Taupo to meet up with Miriam and Josh so we could do the Tongariro crossing. We were really lucky with the weather, no rain and not too much sun either. The scenery is amazing and its not too hard a walk. But as i've been a bit lazy lately, after the 5hr mark my legs didn't want to play anymore, so i struggled a bit for the last hr, which was mostly downhill. After the trek, we went to Miriam's for a few days, near Palmerston North, i was glad we hadn't planned much as my muscles were killing me! Then it was off to New Plymouth as Miriam and Josh had a wedding to go to. I hung out with them in between visiting the museum and going to a beautiful park where you can see mount Taranaki if there's no cloud, which there is most of the time! I finally had a great view of the mountain on my early morning bus trip

Christchurch

On the way to Lyttleton

back to Auckland. I met a lovely Maori boy on the bus trip, Jayden, he was 11 and travelling on his own on a 4hr bus trip to see his mum, he was very chatty telling me all about his family, in the end i had to lend him my MP3 player so i could have a break!
Back in Auckland i stayed with my Godfather again, we had a lovely walk along the sea front from St.Heliers bay to Mission beach and back.
It was great to see everyone again, but this probably won't be my only return to NZ!

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