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Yep, back from NZ and had a great time.

zorbing at Rotorua

Sledging (riding rapids on a boogey board)

heading into the depths of the earth

I am so glad I went. I did abseiling and caving, mountain biking and kayaking, I rode in a sky lift and screamed on a Sky Swing (similar to a bungy but you are sitting down). I visited Rotorua mud pools and lazed in thermal pools. I was amazed by the view from Auckland's Sky Tower at night, and awed by the magnificence of Kauri trees. I spent two days driving around the coast of the upper half of the North Island. It was a great experience and I want to do it again one day.

The kids stayed at my mums while I was away and apparently there were no problems, but she was very tired and glad they were going when I picked them up. I think maybe a week was a big ask.

When I got off the plane back into Sydney I was assailed by the stench. Sydney really truly stinks. I am happy to be moving to a semi-rural area. Ias also blown away by how incredibly noisy it is outside my window of a morning. I actually missed this noise when I went bush in Jan, but my goodness it is really grating on me after a week in NZ. The country over there is beautiful, even thee cities are not that overwhelming with traffic, and clean! So clean! There is a huge emphasis on recycling and not littering and councils take a vested interest in maintaining their towns. I was impressed.

Money wise I felt the comparison was good. Milk, books, and petrol were the things that I noticed were much more expensive than here. Oh, and people don't go and sit in pubs and drink, they go to one of the many licensed restaurants and cafes and have civilised conversations over dinner and a bottle of whatever. Most alcohol (not spirits) is sold in the supermarket in the aisle next to the cereal aisle. Eating out was expensive though, the average main course was more than $15, which put it out of my budget. Subway is more common than McDonalds and they still have the Pizza Hut Restaurants. I had Kumara chips one time, yum yum, and fish and chips another, yum yum.

I look forward to taking the kids over when they are a bit older.