Home. Where a Dollar is a Dollar and You Can Read the Street Names.

Written 23 July 2013

It was so exciting to come home. Randomly in the plane my watch stopped working! It was like it knew time was up for our trip! We had a welcoming comity waiting for us at the airport. Gemma was there which was a lovely surprise and so were Leanne, Malcolm and Rachael. It was so good to see everyone again. We took ages to come through as we had declared things and so had to have our bags examined etc. It was all a bit surreal seeing everyone when we came through the doors really. It felt like we were away for so long and that our trip would never end.

We were also excited to get home and see the animals. The dog were excited to see us. Jessy and Sasha got to have lots of cuddles with Steve.

Then we went down to our old house to see Bethell. We were very happy to see her again too. I think she was a bit cross with us at first but then she remembered that she loves us anyway.

And gave us lots of smooches.

We had a yummy treat of crayfish waiting for us. MORE yummy food!!!

And I was super excited to see the christmas tree.

It was nice to be able to get a few things from our storage room the next day.

Malcolm and Leanne kindly let us stay with them for a while until we got ourselves sorted. It was so good to be back with family again and in a lovely clean home. Thank you so much again for having us Leanne and Malcolm. We REALLY appreciate it!

We went to catch up with the rest of my family.

Here I am with all my brothers and sisters (Gemma, Sophie, Josh, Hannah and Levi).

And my step mum (Janelle) and nieces (Teeana and Rosia). 

We had a fun time catching up with everyone.

We went and visited Jack.

And had a Christmas dinner with the Clarks.

It was a busy week of catching up. 

There were many things about coming home that were strange. 

One was that every time Steve left the room for more than a minute I'd think "Where's Steve gone?" Because I was so used to being with him every moment or at least knowing exactly where he was. It was very strange and took rather a long time to get used to. 

It was also strange coming home to nearly our house. Because our old house (that Rachel moved into when we were gone) is just across the paddock from Leanne and Malcolm's it was odd being so close to home but it wasn't our home anymore. I often visited Bethell there however and took her for walks to the pond.

It was also strange but good to just have things cost what they cost without having to constantly convert the currency to New Zealand dollar. Buying things is easier when a dollar is a dollar. 

And you no longer need a map when you know the way! (Although I didn't have a car as I sold it prior to our trip but we had Steve's truck.)

It is awesome being able to drink the tap water and rinse your toothbrush in it!

We arrived home to the best New Zealand summer for years. So I'll tell you about the rest of our Endless Summer in the next post.

The Last Days of our Nine Month Holiday

Written 23rd July 2013

I know this post is a bit late in being written as we returned to New Zealand on the night of the 14th of December 2012 but I had all those other posts to publish and what with one thing and another it is suddenly July!!! This time last year we had been away for months already! So anyway, I will finish off about our trip and then write a post about coming home. 

We had a lovely last few days of our holiday. We went out to dinner at a surf club with Dad, Ronda, Aunty Ali, Jake and Christian.

There were cute wee parrot-type birds loving it up in the trees when we were walking from the car to the club along the waterfront. They were all singing love songs to one another until there was a cacophony of bird song.

We had a great night out catching up with everyone. Aunty Ali even had 2 for 1 vouchers which always makes a meal taste yummier when you know its a mean deal!

Yummmm, tasty!

The next day we spent the morning at Dad and Ronda's. I took this photo to show how homely Ronda (and Dad?) had made the house since our last visit.

I like how there are lots of trees around the house and you always wake up to birds singing good morning to you.

Steve did some more work for Dad.

And said goodbye to his faithful board which he had so many good surfs on.

We went to Snapper Rock with Jonny and Jenna and the boys had a surf while us girls relaxed in the sun on the beach and had a lovely swim.

And we had to have Sushi Train once more. Yum!

Dad took us on a tour of the mansion he's been building. It is stunning!

Ronda had made us a yummy platter of fresh fruit. Yum! So much good food!

Dad showed us all sorts of the lovely details that had been built.

Here he is in the dog house haha.

That night we had yummy salmon for dinner. Mmmm.

And mango and rice pudding.

AND yummy caramel pudding that I have forgotten the name of...

I left my favorite book that we found in the backpackers in Paris for Dad and Ronda to read since I already have a copy at home.

And then we left for Sydney. It wasn't so bad leaving because I knew we would see them both again in a day or so but I still felt a bit sad because we both had such a great time! Thank you Dad and Ronda for making the last 2 weeks of our trip some of the best. It was so good to end on a high!

We had a great night in Sydney with Adam and Talisha. They picked us up from the airport and took us over to where they live in Manly.

We had a great night with them out at Manly and had dinner and drinks with them and Joey. We even bumped into a friend from our travels!

There was a table tennis competition on.

We had a great night Adam and Talisha! Thanks for having us and showing us the sights!

The next morning we had a really fun surf with Adam at Manly. The last surf of our trip.

Then we went back, got changed and waited for the taxi we had ordered.

And waited.

And waited.

We missed the ferry we were aiming for and when the taxi still didn't arrive we hiked all the way to the ferry terminal with our packs and surfboards!

The ferry ride was fun because we got to see Sydney from the sea and it was good having Adam with us to point out things.

Then we met up with Dad and Ronda! Yay!

We went to a Guylian cafe YUM!

It was really hard to choose just one thing!

I chose this. Mmmm.

Adam sent a picture of his cake to Talisha.

Inside of mine.

We said goodbye to Adam.

And headed off to the airport.

By train.

It was sad saying goodbye to Dad and Ronda at the airport.

Here is the last plane of our trip. The 18th flight of our 9 month trip!

It was such a wonderful trip. There were so many amazing things we saw and did. I was an awesome feeling to be free to do what ever we wanted whenever we wanted. And it was SO great to do it with someone I love so much. You would think that spending every moment of every day with someone for months on end that you would get sick of one another but I think it just made me love Steve more than ever. Thank you for sharing our travels with me Steve. I love you so much. xoxox.

So, the last leg was about to begin...