3 - 5 July 2015

3 July

As tomorrow is a Saturday and Independence Day, today is a public holiday, so there wasn't too much noise from the streets. We had a slow start and then lunch at a Japanese restaurant, followed by coffee on the street, watching all the walkers going by.

The temperature started out at around 22C but went up close to 30C, however it was very nice as the humidity was very low.

We packed our bags and checked their weights. We managed to talk Lynnely to dropping us off at the Flyaway bus station rather than having her drive us to the airport and back, particularly as she has to work a 12 hour shift tomorrow. With the day being a public holiday, the traffic was very light and the trip that is advertised as taking 90 minutes on the website, took just over 30 minutes.

We had to wait a couple of hours until the Air NZ checkin opened for the flight, but everything was pretty painless from then on.

Independence Day disappeared as we cross the date line.

The ride home was good and bad. The good thing was that the kid a couple of seats away cried only a little and not very often. The bad things were the poor seating, seat spacing and aisle width, but the really bad thing was having the two 20 something girls sitting next to us. One was German and the other Danish and they talked in English, endlessly. They also talked loudly and giggled like seven year olds even when eating.

5 July

We got a few hours sleep, picked up our baggage, declared our food and Lynette's seeds for the garden and were downtown at the ferry building by 8:10AM. It was very good going. The temperature was a great Hikuai 12C and the skies clear and blue. When we arrived home at 10AM, the temperature had risen to 15C, almost the same as we had experienced in the UK in many spots.

It was nice to be home. The grass wasn't too high and everything else seemed OK. Cinders the cat seems to have lost her neurosis and appears back to her old self, so it's great to have a cat again. The price of petrol is twice that of the USA and half that of the UK.

Thanks to all who have been reading this blog. This is the last posting in this series. Not sure if or when we will do another.

Best wishes to you all

Lynette and Jim, the Waiheke Gypsies.