Our last day in NZ. We're at Mandy and Peter's just packing our quart of belongings into the pint pot of our luggage. To be fair, John could get his stuff into a carry on whereas mine needs a trunk of Victorian dimensions. Of course I brought a whole lot of things/ clothes/ shoes I haven't worn but wore th same things over and over ( yes, I did wash them occasionally). I blame it on being a Girl Guide- 'Be Prepared' is my motto but as I'm not sure what for, then I just take everything I can think of. I must admit it will be good not to live out of a suitcase and I'm looking forward to meeting up with my trusted old friend, my own pillow. Having said that, the Kiwis have amazingly comfortable beds.we stayed in a motel 45 mins north of Wellington on Tuesday eve and it made me so glad we'd stayed in homestays. The apartment was fab, spacious and clean but had absolutely no soul and for that, it was depressing. I think if we'd stayed in motels all the way round I may have been writing this blog from Sheffield. It was wonderful to stay with families and soak up all the local news, hear all about NZ from their point of view- history, politics, global warming, you name it, we've discussed it with somebody - and to hear their personal stories too. And staying with Mandy and Peter is the perfect end to our stay- like home away from home and so good to see them again. Mal, a teenage lad, is staying with them at the mo while his mum is doing the Iron Man challenge in Sydney, and he made us all a wonderful Banoffee pie last night which followed a gorgeous pumpkin tart which Mandy had made with a pumpkin from the garden. Mandy and Mal were off early this morning so we had breakfast with Peter and now he's gone to work. We're off to visit a sculpture park made from a quarry and the Hamilton Botanical Gardens before popping back here for sausages made by Mal's dad (I think) and then on to the airport. I can't believe we've been away for a month. The time has flown by. We've loved everything about our trip- only 3 disappointments- the Franz Josef Glacier, some falls which we stopped to look at which were underwhelming and Greymouth ( although a cafe in a shopping centre we visited in desperation yesterday came close to Greymouth's hitherto undisputed title as Most Depressing Place in NZ). I shall miss the silence - although the birds can be pretty noisy - but we have stood in places where there are absolutely no sounds of the 21st century, no matter how long you stay there. I shall also miss the space- empty roads for miles with just the occasional car passing every twenty minutes- and also the personal space- most people live in houses on 'sections' which are parcels of land. The plots are big enough for a roomy house ( huge family kitchen/ living areas) and large garden and are set on wide roads. The Kiwi hospitality has been amazing and their cheery, laid back approach is wonderful. NZ seems altogether less consumer driven and frantic than the UK, their adverts on Tv and billboards contain normal looking people and I haven't seen many women teetering around on cripplingly high heels or wearing loads of make up. The lifestyle here is so relaxed and people centred and we've really enjoyed the sense of humour. Their history is a trifle recent and their town architecture is on the boxy, prefab side -I've missed our wonderful stone and brick buildings and history round every corner. We saw a sign yesterday which simply said ' historic place'- it didn't say what it was just that it was a historic place. All other historic places/ buildings haven't been more than about a hundred years old, if that, and built of wood/ tin so a lot of historic places have reproductions of historic buildings. This makes the damage to Christchurch so much worse because Christchurch did have stone buildings which were about 140 years old and which were horribly damaged in the earthquake. So, feeling sad to leave but so looking forward to seeing everyone again. And to anyone who's still reading this weighty tome- you deserve a medal! Xxxxxxxxx