Saying goodbye to 'Eddie the Campervan'

We were awoken by the Sugarbabes bleating out at 5.30am. Kia had decided to ring her grandma! Bless!! ... needless to say we all went back to sleep until 7.15am.

We had our last breakfast in the camper and walked the very short distance to the city centre.

We first had a wander around Cathedral Square and a little look around the Market on there before calling in at the I-Site and booking the shuttle bus to take us all to the airport.

We then had a walk up to the Arts Market, crossing over the Avon River on route. Mam and Dad got to see the punts on the way.

We had a walk around the stalls and then walked down to the Botanic Gardens. The weather was sunny but just a bit chilly. We walked right round the outside of the gardens and back up with the river beside us. Very pretty gardens with gorg flowers and trees.

We decided on a pub lunch for dinner, just cos we were flying late tonight and arriving late at Auckland. We headed straight to ‘The Bard’ for a traditional pub lunch. We all enjoyed a pint each and I had lasagne with the other 3 having the Roast Beef dinner ! We all cleaned our plates, it was delicious!!

We had another walk up the high street, getting the rest of our sovenier shopping. Meeting a woman in a shop who was related to Ged Stokes the Whitehaven RL Coach ... it’s a small world!!
After a final walk around the city we walked back to the camper for our final packing and sorting.

We set off, calling in at the Petrol Station to fill up for the last time and drove to the Affordable Motorhomes Depot. We arrived there at 4pm, we were early so even got to fit in a game of Dominos whilst waiting.

Linda (my contact at Affordable Motorhomes) was lovely, it was the first time I had met her after speaking to her so many times over the internet. She even gave us a lift to the Airport.

4063km’s we had driven in total in the Camper , not bad in 3 weeks!!

So we’re all just sitting here after checking in our bags. We’re waiting to board the JQ256 flight from Christchurch to Auckland. Our flights at 6.10pm so there’s an hour to go. We’re just working our way through the leftovers from the van.

We boarded the flight and sat and chilled whilst taking off. It was just a short flight and it wasn’t long before we were descending again. We arrived in Auckland and caught a shuttle bus to the hotel. We were staying at the All Seasons Hotel that we’d stopped at previously.

It was late by the time we got there and decided to have a quick change and then head out to see the sights.

We took the short walk to the Sky Tower, unfortunately it was too late to see anyone jumping from it but it was all lit up nicely. We all wanted to go in so paid our money and took the lift to the Observation Deck. Mam was a bit wary so stayed behind the barrier. Dad got brave and stepped out onto the glass floor for a really quick photo. We had a walk around the tower taking in the city view before going for a beer in the cafe below the observation deck.

After that we decided to have a walk down to the harbour side. We got a bit lost but think we ended up in the rich part of the marina. The boats were huge, they looked rather expensive.

We walked round the corner and found our bearings. We walked back towards the hotel but stopped off for a pint in the pub. We then said our goodbyes .... for the moment!!