Australia Part 3: New Zealand

The final leg of our trip down under was to visit Sarah's extended family in New Zealand. We flew into Queenstown where we collected a car and took the scenic drive down to Cromwell, where Sarah's grandfather and his wife (Pete and Doreen) and her uncle and aunt (Trevor and Jackie) live. It was great to catch up and share some stories, and see their new houses. Big thanks to Trevor and Jackie for the use of their house.

On the balcony at Trevor and Jackie's - we even tried some wine from the nearby vineyard

The next evening we took the Pig Route down from Cromwell to Dunedin. We were virtually the only traffic on the road, and so had the brilliant scenery to ourselves. It had been hot and dry (with very clear skies) across the Central Otago region, but as we headed towards the coast we saw some fantastic cloud formations which looked as if they were creeping across the surface of the mountains.

We arrived in Dunedin quite late in the evening and proceeded to spend the following couple of days catching up with Clarence, Yvonne, Cousin Matt and his fiance Abbi (and, of course, Jessie who had flown over to join us). Yvonne took us touring down the peninsula, visiting Lanarch Castle gardens (which were beautiful) and the albatross colony. The whole area was so unspoilt that it was tempting to stay. We also sneaked in some aquajogging, and visited Matt and Abbi's new house which is just over the road from the beach. Yvonne cooked us a wonderful Lamb Roast, which poor old Matt couldn't share as he was on a detox diet (consists of lemon, chilli & maple syrup water, three times a day)

Lanarch Castle garden

Near the albatross colony

At the beach near Jackie's (Yvonne's friend) house

Abbi, Matt, Sarah and Stephen

In the garden with Clarence

Jessie and Clarence in his garden

The added bonus on the trip home was the in-flight entertainment - not for the quality so much (although the Air New Zealand kit is brilliant) but in celebration of their new systems they had a 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' contest. The first person on the flight to complete the interactive game on the console would win a free return flight to NZ from Sydney - and Stephen won it not once but twice (the first time the game reset itself before the hostess could arrive to verify, so he had to start from scratch)...taking home a free flight for Jessie to visit Clarence later in the year :)