Last New Zealand post.

One thing i forgot to mention in my last post was that when we arrived at Dunedin camp site, Colin decided the walls weren't quite where he wanted them so he reversed our campervan into one of them. Most unlike him to be so clumsy! Surely he wasn't trying to damage Lucy, so we could stay in a nice hotel instead?

The penguin place in Dunedin on the Otago peninsula was good as we got to see the very rare and extremely shy yellow-eyed penguin (only 5000 of them are left) We viewed them sitting in their nests from hidden trenches. It was great, but in my opinion the best thing about penguins is the way they walk and, as they were protecting their nests, they didn't move at all. This just wasn't good enough so we drove on to Oamaru, where every evening around dusk the penguins return from their fishing expedition, waddle up the beach and return to their nests in the coast cliffs rising from the beach. Straight away we saw 3 of them comically making their way towards the hillside and patiently waited to see more. Then about 20 mins later we realised their nests were only a few feet in front of where we were standing. The inquisitive little fellows then popped right up to check us out. So much for being shy!! It was amazing, they were so close to us. We also saw the about 400 little blue penguins too. Very cool.

On leaving Oamaru campsite the next morning Colin had another moment and wrapped the van around a big wooden post (as it was in the way!). As with the previous sabotage attempt no serious damage was done. This meant that we still had one night of camping left in Christchurch, so, if it was a cunning ploy to get in a hotel earlier, it failed. Obviously realising this he didn't create any further 'accidents'.

We didn't spend much time in Christchurch as we were staying out of town and had to fly out the next day back to Auckland. This is where we spent our final night in NZ in a heavenly bed as planned and, much as I had enjoyed the camping, it was really nice to have a big comfortable bed that doesn't let in a draft every time one of us rolled over and your own bathroom that was as big as the whole van. Back to civilisation. It was good.

We both loved NZ and can't wait to go back at some point. Now we have started planning our Australia leg of the trip as we arrived in Sydney yesterday. Yes, I did accidently pick up a saftey card from the seat pocket in front of me. (See previous photo exhibit). Think it got stuck in a magazine which I packed in my bag. Oopsy-daisy!!!