I had been looking forward to my trip back to New Zealand for the Christmas and New Year's holiday since I booked my flights in August, especially having been away from home for around 15 months longer than ever before. But before I could arrive home and celebrate with my family and friends I had some pretty hardcore travelling to do - a full 72 hours from leaving my home in Baton Rouge to arriving at my parents' house in Christchurch (and this isn't even including the time lost due to time zone changes). I stayed overnight at my friend's house in New Orleans and set off for the airport at 4 am in the morning, flying to Los Angeles. I had an eleven hour stopover in LAX which was pretty boring and then it was on to a long flight over the Pacific to Sydney. Luckily I managed to sleep well on that flight thanks to the empty seat beside me and lack of any quality movies on offer.
When I landed I was well rested, and so I spent my Christmas Day wandering around Sydney to make the most of my thirteen hour stopover. This was pretty cool as I had never seen Sydney before, although the cloudy and cool weather wasn't exactly what I was expecting from Australia in summer. It was quite surreal, being Christmas day, and with nobody around I wandered by the Sydney Opera House, Government House, through the botanical gardens, up to Hyde Park, and then back down to Darling Harbour, where the rain began to pour down on the increasing amount of people and the many inflatable Santas. It seemed like a cool city from the one day I spent there, and one day I'll hopefully to return to watch a cricket game at the SCG. I took a lot of photos, some of which can be seen in the slide show below.
After arriving in Christchurch I spent Boxing Day with my family, having a traditional Christmas feast (only one day late due to my flight). It was great to see everyone! That night I went out for a few beers with my closest friends, one of which I hadn't seen since he moved to England six years ago (the English accent he had picked up was crazy), and another childhood friend I hadn't seen for a similar amount of time. The next morning I was off to Arthur's Pass to climb a mountain. I was tagging along on a trip to celebrate the achievement of five of Dad's friends, who traversed the Southern Alps from Arthur's Pass to Mt. Cook over a period of 17 days, 40 years ago - a pretty extraordinary feat considering they were all university students at the time. One of the members of that team had kept a typed-up notebook detailing everything about the journey which made for great reading. We originally planned to climb Mt. Philistine (to replicate the first day of their trip) but the weather didn't cooperate so we decided to climb the slightly less challenging Mt. Temple instead. Mt. Temple is still 1913 metres, and functions as a club ski-field in the winter. It was a great experience and the toughest climb I have done yet, with even a small snow section near the top of the peak. Sadly the cloud didn't clear throughout the day to give us any spectacular views, but it was still nice to be back in the New Zealand mountains.
The next great time to be had during my visit came during a New Year's camping trip at Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula. Nearly all of my best friends through high school and university were all together for the first time in around seven years, which was crazy! Friends had come from all over the world to be in Christchurch, including Boston, Leeds, London, Perth, and Auckland. We spent three nights hanging out around the sweet campsite, doing the usual stuff we used to do back at high school and university. This meant playing lots of sports (force back, beach cricket, football, kick ball), drinking games, swimming, fishing for flounder (we caught one), visiting Akaroa, cooking BBQs, and just catching up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Many good times were had, but some highlights included Greg's goalkeeping in football, Ash Neale's birthday cake, The Hobbit popcorn bucket, sleeping under the stars, and an epic final night culminating in the communal tent almost blowing over in the strong wind. Sadly it was time to head home, saying goodbye to some friends, and taking in Hickory Bay and Hinewai Reserve on the way back. Plans are already in place for the next reunion in five years time...this time in the Bahamas!
After somehow returning from Okains Bay with my liver intact, Mum and Dad decided it would be a good idea to go on a sea kayaking trip - at 8 am the very next day! We headed up north to the Marlborough Sounds, one of many picturesque places in the South Island. We paddled in Pelorus Sound, and our route can be seen on the map below, with some pictures too. The first day was pretty cruisy other than a little wind, heading north from Moetapu Bay. We stayed at Pipi Beach campsite, a tiny bit of grass right beside the beach and only reachable by water. At 7:30 the next morning we set off, paddling further up the sound. Some little blue penguins were the highlight of the morning as we paddled into South East Bay to visit Dad's friend Stephen at his family bach. The bach was unbelievable - it seemed more like a five-star resort! The place could sleep around 30 people, had a spa pool, its own jetty for fishing off, a forestry block, farm complete with shearing shed, and all sorts of exciting things to do. We hung around most of the afternoon while the wind was too strong to paddle comfortably, getting a tour around the huge block of land, eating lunch, and fishing off the jetty. Once the wind had died down, we got back in our kayaks and made our way to the campsite for that night at Otatara Bay, paddling through a strong crosswind which left us exhausted by the end of the day. After a solid sleep, the next morning provided one of the highlights of the trip, visiting a colony of Australasian gannets and their fledglings. This was a really cool experience as you could paddle right up to the colony and watch as the parents came in to feed their chick, causing the fledgling gannets to squawk like crazy in the hope the food was coming their way. We then began to cruise back the way we had come, taking a quick break at the beautiful Jacob's Bay, stopping for the night again at Pipi Beach, and then taking it easy the next morning, checking out the wildlife (a seal, shags, shearwaters, and some large sting rays), and visiting Mum's friends at another bach. It was a great trip, capped off with fish and chips in Kaikoura!
When I wasn't climbing mountains, camping, or sea kayaking, I spent a bit of time hanging out with friends and family in Christchurch. I checked out the central city where demolitions are still going on following the earthquakes of the last two years, spent an afternoon at the beach, had countless BBQs, called in for cake day at Plant and Food Research, and visited my awesome grandparents as much as possible (Grandad received a card from the Prime Minister John Key for his 99th birthday). It was just great to be home again!
I owe a huge thank you to all my friends, and especially my family, who made the visit back home so enjoyable! I can't wait to be back living in New Zealand sometime in the coming years. As my good friend Richard said while we were both back visiting, "You don't realise just how awesome New Zealand is until you leave"; truer words have never been spoken.
