We had cereal and milk from the little supermarket at our holiday park, and boarded the bus to drive to Cathedral Cove. Luke insisted his research had discovered an easy 30 minute walk, but the reality was slightly different! I voted down the free parking at the opposite end of the town and made the boys pay $15 for parking at the walk entrance – we listed it as our “unnecessary expense of the day” (*) but everyone later agreed it was well worth paying!

(Minus one photographer, Aunty Beck)

The walk to Cathedral Cove was written on signs as 45 minutes each way (even with my arthritic knees I got there in 30mins), but there were several stairs and undulating hills along the way! It was well worth the hike though, and everyone left with some beautiful photos.

We stopped for lunch at a popular little cafe in Hahei before returning to Hot Water Beach. The tourist attraction there is to dig your own thermal pool, which can only be done either side of low tide, which today was at 2.53pm. As we had checked out of the Top 10 holiday park there this morning, they agreed to let us return to hire spades and we took them down to Hot Water Beach.

The kids had a ball there digging their own hot spring, but found they couldn’t stand in the water for too long because it was too hot! The underground hot springs filter up through the sand between high and low tides. It was amazing to see the steam coming off the sand so close to the freezing cold ocean water!

We then took the long and windy road (Zac LOVES windy roads 😩) across to Coromandel township where we stopped for fruit for afternoon tea (no one complained!) and then drove the scenic coastal road down to Thames, our stop for the night. We discovered a gorgeous little waterfall off the track along the way, and it was only a 3minute walk each way to get there!

And just to prove that Aunty Beck and I were there as well…….(but not as keen to climb yet another rock face)…..

Our accommodation here is a couple of lovely chalets built into the side of a hill, with beautiful views from our bedroom windows. We tried to eat at the local bistro which came highly recommended for dinner, but they couldn’t fit us in! The local Thai restaurant a few doors down was able to house us though. Mental note: when there is 13 of us, we need to consider booking ahead if we want to eat out!

* Grandpop shared his diary with us from our trip 20 years ago before we left, and on every page he had a “bargain of the day”. Tim’s favourite was a $15 T-shirt Grandpop picked up for $14 🙄😂, so Ross and Luke’s response to that was to list an anti-bargain of the day 😆

The party of 8 became a party of 13 today. We met “the cousins” at the airport and flew to Auckland. We were too tight to pay for seat selection, but discovered at check-in that we had all been seated together, yay!

For the first time in five years, Zac managed to survive a flight without vomiting with anxiety, which made a good flight even better for the rest of us. Once through customs, Beck and I fed the kids McDonalds for lunch (at the local time of 3pm) while Ross and Luke went to the depot to pick up our 15 seater bus.

A long drive was then underway as we headed straight for the Coromandel Peninsula and our destination for the night. Many country towns along the way but not many dinner options! We found a little town called Tairua which had two “restaurants”…..a generous term perhaps…..an unpatronised sushi shop where even the staff were hiding out the back, and a fish and chip shop with a parade of interesting customers! Ross and Luke were hungry as they hadn’t had anything since coffee before our morning flight, but for the rest of us a simple toastie was enough.

We arrived at our accommodation well after dark and were happy to settle in to our three villas quite quickly. The touring starts in earnest tomorrow!

A leisurely breakfast followed by a frantic packing and checking of bags was our start to the day. We headed back to Westfields as we departed our accommodation to pick up some bread for lunch and the all-important morning coffee 😇 Zac and Belle like a babycino, here they are called “fluffies”…

Around the corner from the airport is the Antarctic Experience. We enjoyed three hours there learning about Antarctica, seeing penguins and husky dogs up close, a 4D movie, and riding an all-terrain vehicle called a Haggland. It was a great way to spend our last few hours in NZ, and consolidated for Zac and Sam a unit of work they had done in term three on Antarctica. 

We then returned our bus to the drop-off point and checked in with Air New Zealand. They have reduced staff and introduced self check-in. However, the terminal gave us an extra boarding pass and too few bag tags, and then the scanner at the bag drop stopped working. It took three staff to help me complete the check-in process after all, with the result being I am not very impressed with their system!!

Anyway, we had plenty of time to relax at the airport, near a playground and with free wifi (ie. all ages of our children covered 👍). We even ran into the Bowdens in the retail area, who arrived the same day as we did and are leaving the same day, albeit on a different airline.

It has been a great ten days, and the measure of a successful holiday for me is that everyone has a different list of favourite things (as well as safe travel, no illness and suitable weather of course). The weather has been fantastic – before we left, the weather forecast said Queenstown would rain for the whole week, but we have only seen sprinkling on the way home from Milford Sound, have enjoyed perfect weather and no transport problems. (I didn’t even break Ross on this trip by including too many kms each day!)

From Ashburton we headed straight to Christchurch this morning, a further hour and fifteen minutes along the road. We decided morning tea in their botanic gardens would be nice, but people were everywhere and parking was unattainable! We left the city centre for our accommodation in Riccarton, via the Westfields there to pick up some milk and sushi for our lunch. We were able to access our accommodation at 12pm, so we unpacked and had our lunch before we set off again.

We headed back into the city centre for a tram tour of the city. It was actually quite depressing to see the extent of the devastation the earthquakes caused. 70% of the city was affected, and the driver’s commentary as he pointed out many sites and points of interest was always peppered with “they’re going to fix that soon, it will cost $x million”.

Once we disembarked the tram, we headed over to the Cardboard Cathedral, which was built after the earthquake to replace the previous church of Gothic stone that crumbled with the tremors. The street behind that contained an artistic structure called the 185 empty chairs, a monument to the 185 people who lost their lives in the earthquake of 22 February 2011. One problem: I live with several maths nerds who felt the need to count the chairs,only to discover there are 186!! And the maths nerds live with some OCD-ish wonderful people, who find that disturbing! 

From there we travelled to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, suggested to us for a Maori experience. (Thanks Aunty Beck, it was great!) We did a guided tour that showed us kea and kiwi birds up close, fed some eels, and watched a Maori show – a great cultural experience. The kids picked Lone Star for their last dinner in NZ, which was just up the road from our accommodation, and we were back in time to repack and sleep.

After reading the riot act yesterday about taking too long in the ONE bathroom we are ALL sharing and upsetting the teenagers (actually the young adult was the only one to take it personally 🙄….), everyone worked hard this morning to get ready to depart quickly. The result was we were sitting outside the Cadbury Factory half an hour before it opened for business!! 😳😂

I had booked us into the 9am tour of Cadbury World, which came with extensive information, samples along the way, and a bag full of various products. As often as I told the kids to stop eating the chocolate in their bags, their tour guide kept encouraging them to indulge!! 😳😩 Every time I turned to check on them, Sam looked a little greener and Belle’s cheeks were full and her bag a little emptier. I was so concerned one of them was going to be car sick!  

At the end of the tour, we left Dunedin for Timaru. It was a long drive, but by 1pm we had pies from a local bakery and were enjoying a picnic in Timaru Botanic Gardens. After lunch we drove another two hours to Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd. It was very beautiful scenery, although I think we have said that at least once on every single day of this holiday! 

Ross was pretty tired and sick of driving by the time we left there. Our plan had been to get as close to Christchurch as we could, so at 5.45pm we reached Ashburton and called time. I negotiated an absolute bargain on a three bedroom apartment in a little motel, where the receptionist even offered to dry my washing for me! (Yes, I am washing again….). Being a Monday, there is not a lot open in town so we returned to Speight’s Ale House for dinner (salad and roast vegetables were highly sought after given our second breakfast at Cadbury World….). Sadly, there is only one full day left of our holiday 😕.

It was interesting to start the day as visitors at Dunedin City Baptist Church. After attending the 10am service, we drove back into the city for a lunch of Subway and headed over to Olveston Historic House, where I had prebooked a 1pm private tour.

Having done this tour last time we were in Dunedin, I knew they would ask if anyone played the piano, as they need their Steinway grand piano from New York played regularly to keep it in tune. Jarrod was lucky enough to play, and I was lucky enough to once again appreciate the fruits of many years of lessons we have paid for! 😉 The kids enjoyed the tour, and our tour guide Kevin was very patient and willing to answer all our questions.

We then drove 25minutes away across the Otago Peninsula to Lanarch Castle. Equally as beautiful, with wonderful scenic views, this is New Zealand’s only castle. Built by William Lanarch, the family sold it and it was abandoned twice until the Baker family purchased it in 1967 and have spent the last fifty years renovating it. We enjoyed our self-guided tour of the buildings as well as time in the extensive gardens.

As we returned to the city, we detoured via the steepest street in the world, Baldwin St. The little three were very keen to climb it, and I was keen to hold the bags and jackets while they did. In the end we all climbed it at our own pace (which is my polite way of saying they waited for me back at the bus!) – around 300 steps up a street at an incline of 19 degrees! 😳

Back at our apartment, Ross went grocery shopping while I did some washing (I found the laundry building at the back of the complex here). Not much is open here on a Sunday, so Ross bought some KFC for dinnner and found the NRL grand final on our tv, which has made the boys very happy! 

We were up and out of Te Anau just after 9am this morning, headed for Invercargill. It wasn’t in my original itinerary but Ross remembered visiting it last time (19years ago!) and I remembered a historic clock tower that we could visit.

Over two hours later, we arrived in Invercargill, a much bigger city than we remembered! The clock tower was the centre of a roundabout, impossible to look at, so instead we went to Queens Park for morning tea and a game of frisbee.

Ross had read a brochure yesterday about The Catlins, a southern scenic route along the bottom of the country and decided we should explore that on our way to Dunedin. It was beautiful scenery, sometimes through farmlands, sometimes along the coastline, occasionally on gravel roads. There were no major towns though with decent food options, so I was drip feeding the kids the snacks in the car along the way – and now need to shop again!! Over a six hour trip, they ate no lunch as such, but had grapes, mandarins, Grainwaves, choc chip cookies, almonds and gummi bears. Another #proudparenting moment….

We visited along the route a lighthouse at Waipapa Point (almost the southernmost point of the South Island), Purakaunui Falls (the most photographed waterfall in NZ), and another lighthouse at Nugget Point. The scenic route ended at Balclutha and it was then another hour to Dunedin from there, which we reached at 6pm.

Our accommodation at Dunedin is nice but basic – it’s a three bedroom apartment so we are all together, but there’s only one bathroom and the laundry is elsewhere in the complex. And the wifi is not great, so my photos are not uploading. We are a block away from the University of Otago, so Ross and I feel we are really bringing up the average age in this suburb! 

A lot of my research before we left home was about Dunedin. The Ale House attached to the Speight’s Brewery had good reviews for its meals, so we went there for dinner. The booth we were given had views of the AFL Grand Final, so the boys enjoyed that. 

It was still light when we finished, so we went to admire Dunedin Railway Station (above), before returning to our accommodation where we watched tv for the first time this week – I still don’t know which party Winston Peters helped into government, but we watched some local rugby, a show on Christopher Columbus set in Florence, and “Sing: China” – not a normal Saturday night for team Jones…😂

Our last morning in Queenstown. The cleaners were knocking on our door at 9.45am even though we had until 10am to vacate. We explored Queenstown Gardens, working up an appetite to eat an early lunch from Fergburger (much to Ross’ horror that we couldn’t leave the town until we had one!). The Gardens are beautiful, just like everywhere else we look. Tim thinks it will be strange to go home and not see snow-covered mountains constantly surrounding us.

The first pic above of the creek is my new favourite, my next screen saver! After exploring for a while, Ross took four kids to buy petrol, while Abi, Zac and I purchased some fudge from the Remarkable Sweet Shop and lined up at Fergburger…..at 10.45am….. We were back at the bus with burgers and fries and onion rings and aioli by 11.15!! The only time I have ever banned my children from eating fruit for morning tea because I am about to make them eat burgers and fries…..#proudparentingmoment……. It was so worth it though, everyone agreed it was all delicious.

We finally departed Queenstown 😢 for Te Anau, along the same windy roads I “survived” earlier this week. There really are very few options to stop between these two towns. But it’s ok, I didn’t need to! We reached Te Anau just before 2pm, grabbed a snack from the bakery and a coffee, and checked in to our hotel. There was a 32 minute presentation on the Fiordland at the local cinema, but no one else was keen (at $10 a ticket I was ok with that, I might just purchase the DVD for $30 if I can find it…).

At 4.30pm we joined the Real Journeys Glowworm Caves tour, which involved a boat ride to the caves, and then a walk and boat ride inside the caves. No photography allowed, so this was my last pic for the day. (We really don’t favour Sam and Belle, they are just always ready to pose!)

Everyone loved the glow worm tour, which included a video presentation and lecture when we returned to the Visitor Centre about the national park surrounding us and more in depth info about the life cycle of glow worms. 45mins was long enough in the caves for me though, it was pitch black most of the time and the constant thundering sound of rushing water reminded me of how having lots of children has weakened my bladder! 😉

We were back in Te Anau exploring the main street by 6.45pm. We ended up in a local restaurant for dinner called The Ranch, full of John Wayne pics and country and western music!, then returned to our hotel for a spa and sauna before bed. The spa was the hottest we have ever felt, so now there are a lot of red-faced children sleeping on top of their blankets! 

We woke at 9am, I tell you!! No alarm set today, as it is the compulsory rest day of the trip. 

(Explanatory note: ever since everyone felt tired after Tasmania in 2012 and I then nearly broke Ross on the USA West Coast in 2013 by making him drive so many kms in 8 days, the family outvoted me and insist on having one day of rest on our trips. There are places to see and things to do, but ok, whatever….)

We strolled down the dockside area to explore Queenstown at 11am, well…it’s a stroll AFTER we leave Lake Street. I’m not sure the photos looking down and up the street do the incline justice…..

We did some souvenir shopping and bought dumplings for lunch. We have walked past the famous Fergburger store every day, but the line is always too long for some of the more patience-challenged family members.  We then drove out to the Kawarau River Bridge to watch (but not participate in!!) some bungy jumping and ziplining. 

From there we returned to the Skyline to take a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and enjoy some luge rides. The first person we saw in line was Hamish Blake with his son Sonny, and he was very willing to pose with some fellow Aussies. 

Ross and I focused on teaching Sam and Belle how to drive themselves, until some speeding along crashed right into Ross at full force. We convinced the little two to ride with us after that, and gave their extra rides to the older kids as soon as we could convince them to retire from the track. I guess this pic proves they were ok with that?

At the bottom of the Skyline is Queenstown cemetery. We missed the funeral today of a surrogate grandmother, Heather Mullins, so we had our own little ceremony of silence and remembrance there while the service was on back in Sydney. After a group hug and the shedding of many tears in our little family circle, we spent some individual time reflecting and exploring, and regrouped to head off for dinner. 

Ross was desperate for a steak, so we found a table at a franchise steakhouse restaurant called Lone Star. And were waited on by the first true Maori New Zealander we have encountered. Until now we have had an English bus driver, French tour guide, and other nationalities serve us. We then retired to the house for a spa bath and (reasonably) early night, which allowed me to sneak in another two loads of washing. It is a day of rest after all!! 😉

We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day, leaving at 9am. Our first stop was for coffee and a stroll at Arrowtown, a beautiful little town. 

From there we went on to Wanaka, equally as beautiful.

Our main destination for today was Puzzling World, where we spent an hour in the Great Maze and then time with optical illusions. Sam told us he was in nerd heaven! 

We shopped for more supplies at a Woolworths supermarket on the way home (in NZ, they are called Countdown?). Sam told us we shouldn’t need to visit a supermarket again this holiday…..he clearly does not see our weekly shop at home….. after a BBQ and salad dinner, the kids chose ‘Pan’ for a movie night. In even better news, I did three loads of washing! 😀