{"id":739,"date":"2009-07-09T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/?p=739"},"modified":"2012-10-10T20:17:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T00:17:35","slug":"restoring-our-honeymoon-blog-heading-home-days-17-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/?p=739","title":{"rendered":"Our Honeymoon blog: Heading Home [Days 17 &#038; 18]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Heading Home<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Day 17<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">So it was a sad day &#8211; the beginning of the end. About 2 days of travelling back home.. Which started out with a drive to airport in Christchurch. Unfortunately, the drop of point for the camper was busy as heck.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Mish stayed at the airport and organized our flights, while I waited for an hour to return the camper.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">With all the waiting that we weren&#8217;t ready for, we missed the 12pm flight to Auckland.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">So we were stuck waiting for a couple more hours, had some lunch at the airport, and\u00a0got on the 3pm flight.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Once we got to Auckland, we grabbed a shuttle to the Hyatt for our last night&#8217;s stay.\u00a0 It was a pretty good plan that way. After about two weeks in a camper, it was great to have a night in a hotel, with a great shower, and all the creature comforts!<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">We walked around town for a bit, had a dinner on Vulcan street in a little pub, where I watched a bit of jet boat racing called &#8220;jetsprinting&#8221;.. First time I&#8217;d seen that. Typical adrenaline seeking stuff around here. Boat races, where the boats make 90 degree turns, whipping around crazy fast.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">After some relaxation, we had a swim at the Hyatt, relaxed in the hot tub.. then went to bed very early, since our flight to Sydney in the morning was at 6am, and we&#8217;d have to be there an hour early at least, and it would take close to an hour to get there&#8230;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Day 18<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">We woke at 3am to go to airport for the 6am flight.. Everything went rather smoothly, though we got the\u00a0very back of the plane&#8230;. It wasn&#8217;t a long flight though, so not a big deal..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">We got onto the flight we wanted from Sydney to Vancouver, so that was a relief though.. So after a couple hours sitting <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">around in the Sydney airport, we headed for Canada!<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">We were lucky enough to get Executive class seats as well, which would help for the crazy long flight (~16 hours?). They were the bed seats that fold flat for sleeping.. Great stuff.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">I took a pic with my phone as we left Sydney:<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/100412_0408_Restoringou1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">I took another pic from my phone as we approached Vancouver..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/100412_0408_Restoringou2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">We then got onto our Toronto bound flight as planned, though we were at the back of the bus for that one. Mish and I both had isle seats, a couple rows apart from each other.. But at least we got on the flight!<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">So that wrapped up our Honeymoon in New Zealand.. It was an amazing time.. It was &#8220;Sweet As&#8221; as they say! I highly recommend NZ to anyone, if you are lucky enough to get the opportunity..\u00a0 Just to list them out, here are a few things we wanted to do, but didn&#8217;t have the chance (3 weeks isn&#8217;t near enough for everything!):<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">White Island: a volcanic island<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">North Western edge of the north island:\u00a0 sand dunes, sand surfing..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Queenstown adrenaline rides: canyon swing maybe.. others..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Southern tip of the south island: Penguin watching, etc..<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">.. and many more.. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;\">Anyway, hope you enjoyed the trip!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heading Home Day 17 So it was a sad day &#8211; the beginning of the end. About 2 days of travelling back home.. Which started out with a drive to airport in Christchurch. Unfortunately, the drop of point for the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/?p=739\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-zealand","category-trips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deridder.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}