A very early start this morning was had. 4:30 in fact and that pesky little kea was as it again. Gee, don’t they sleep. We conceded defeat and moved the van away from the trees about 60m into the open. It was windier as well and he landed on the roof, but did not stay for long. Luckily we managed to get back to sleep.
When we woke up for good, we made a cuppa or two. The next couple of hours were spent cleaning up and wrestling with bags and sensitive zippers as we fought to get everything back in. We did a pretty good job as well as we did not need to use the emergency daypack at all.
We also passed on our unused food to a gentleman who stopped at the rest stop for a coffee and a chat. He wont need to do any shopping for a while. We departed with a very different looking van. No beds made up and the table up. It was another nice drive, what we had come to expect around this place. We knew it was coming to an end soon as we exited the last valley and hit the Canterbury plains and said a fond farewell to the mountain scenery.
We completed our lap once we turned left onto the highway One, only 5 or so km from our destination. I put away the map, Luke Skywalker style and was going to use the force to guide us home after finding a petrol station to fill up the van one last time.
Just like the missile into the death star, we cruised straight back to the depot. We took all our luggage out, deposited our garbage in the bins and filled out the necessary paperwork and worked out we had done just over 2500km. The dude bought over our fridgies ”want any of this?” Oops, no, forgot about that. The service was wonderful and very friendly. He even bailed us into a van and took us to the airport. We got another offer to stay to match the one in fox glacier as we seemed to have the sun tied to the van after telling the guy about the weather we had.
At check-in, somehow our bags weighed the same. Don’t get that one considering all the stuff we bought. And as we did not have enough stuff, we decided to buy some more. The balancing kiwis will be a hit for sure. They made us pay departure tax before we could leave and killed some of the waiting time doing a survey for someone from the tourism ministry. It was a nice chance to relive it. Then boarded the fairly full flight, with an empty seat next to us. As usual great food and I watched Wolverine.
We landed in Sydney and made it out in lightning speed. Even went through an automated passport control, bags waiting there, straight through customs. I reckon it was about 12 minutes from getting off the plane to walking out into the arrival area.
The bloke was waiting for us and Zuz bought some flowers for her mum from a Czech lady from Brno. Small world, eh? Then we even nailed a car for the return trip as well. Walked in the door and it was lovely to be nearly knocked over by the boys.
So that was it. 10 Days that we could not have wished for it to turn out better. It was one of those holidays where everything went right or beyond. Things such as getting the cars to the airport, the upgraded Van and the incredible weather. Even down to dead low tide at Moeraki boulders. It was that sort of a holiday. Took way too many photos, but can you really with all that beauty around. And as for the travelling in a campervan. It is the only way to do it. Sure we did not get to all the stuff we originally intended to, but what we did see, we saw well and have left plenty on the table for next time. And believe me, there will be a next time.