{"id":591,"date":"2015-07-09T16:08:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=591"},"modified":"2015-07-09T16:08:17","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:08:17","slug":"new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?p=591","title":{"rendered":"NEW ZEALAND"},"content":{"rendered":"

We flew into Christchurch via Tokyo and Auckland and then drove down to Dunedin. \u00a0Tokyo was surreal.\u00a0 Strange going from holidaying in Holland to suddenly finding yourself on a plane and in a country you never thought you would visit.\u00a0 We were so tired we got a day room in Tokyo for a few hours and slept and then had a shower which helped a bit.\u00a0 We had 3 seats each on the trip to Auckland where we could at least lie down even if we didn\u2019t get a lot of sleep.\u00a0 Scot thought it was great \u2013 it was the first time we had been apart in 3 months and he got to be on his own for the 12 hour flight.<\/p>\n

My mother had gone from unresponsive to rallying to remain with us until we arrived.\u00a0 When she heard we were on our way she had gone from not drinking anything for a couple of days where they thought she wasn\u2019t going to last the night to sitting up and saying she wanted a drink.<\/p>\n

It was lovely to have some time with her where she had picked up and was even able to sit in a chair \u2013 assisted \u2013 and had lucid times where she knew who we were and was able to have a short conversation.\u00a0 We got a few smiles from her during the time.<\/p>\n

During our stay we had breaks from sitting with mum and went shopping to buys things we wanted to take back with us.\u00a0 We bought that much though that we had to buy an extra suitcase (we only took one over) and filled it to capacity!\u00a0 We now have a few extra kiwi things with us but no room left in the van for ANYTHING else!\u00a0 We have so many books there won\u2019t be any more until a lot of them are gone.<\/p>\n

The day we arrived they had had a huge snow fall in Otago and all over the Canterbury plains.\u00a0 Flying in was spectacular seeing all the snow and only the fence and hedge tops showing.\u00a0 There was still snow along the side of the road where it hadn\u2019t thawed on the way down to Dunedin.<\/p>\n

For the first couple of days it snowed overnight and froze as well so we had temperatures of -3 and it only got up to about 4 during the day.\u00a0 They had a record low in Otago with Twizel recording -22 one morning.\u00a0 It was hairy driving along the bay road which was covered in frost for a couple of the mornings.\u00a0 I did skid the car at one point with the car coming towards me probably a bit freaked that I was going to go into them.<\/p>\n

We had a swim at Moana pool and Scot did some diving \u2013 pretending he was 15 again…lol.\u00a0 We were both sore the next day.\u00a0 You don\u2019t realise how much your muscles can hurt when you haven\u2019t swum that distance for a while.<\/p>\n

I was a bit accident prone, falling onto the floor when trying to step out of a high bath after a shower where we were staying, and then twisting my ankle badly whilst stepping over a gutter and falling in a heap on the ground.\u00a0 I thought I had broken it and visions of plaster, changing flights etc flashed through my head.\u00a0 Thankfully only a sprained ankle but it is still swollen \u2013 I don\u2019t think the flight helped at all.<\/p>\n

The most dreadful day was when we had to say goodbye \u2013 Wednesday 1st<\/sup> July.\u00a0 Mum was 15 days from her 84th<\/sup> birthday and we had to leave to get back to our van which was parked up in the Netherlands.\u00a0 It was one of\u00a0the hardest thing I have ever had to do.<\/p>\n

We drove back up to Christchurch and flew from there to Auckland, then Shanghai and on to Amsterdam.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if I never go back to Shanghai airport again.\u00a0 A stark contrast to Tokyo airport that is for sure.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t see anything for the smog as we were landing and you could smell the pollution as we were disembarking and re-boarding our next flight.<\/p>\n

When we arrived in Amsterdam airport we couldn\u2019t buy train tickets as the machines there don\u2019t take cash nor foreign credit cards \u2013 only dutch cards.\u00a0 Shit, wouldn\u2019t you think it would be obvious that there would be many tourists who wouldn\u2019t be able to buy train tickets because of this.\u00a0 A kind hearted soul paid for ours on their card and we gave them cash in return.\u00a0 Quite unbelievable really.\u00a0 It turned out they had a heatwave on that day and the temperature when we landed about 6pm was still mid thirties.\u00a0 The heat was so bad it had disrupted all the trains as well.\u00a0 The train we needed to take to Apeldoorn kept on being cancelled due to them not being able to change the tracks at the junctions.\u00a0 It took us 4.5 hours to negotiate our way via trains to go the one hour trip.\u00a0 We were hot tired and a bit cranky.\u00a0 Our amazing new friends Marian and Michel had organised to pick us up which was a godsend and drive us back to our van.<\/p>\n