Time to Head Back Down South

Monday 29 June

Up early, finished packing, ran the hoover & duster over the house and tried to make things as spic & span as when we arrived. Albi meanwhile was in nervous breakdown mode as she knew change was in the air.

Louis picked up Helen and brought her back - she is taking on the final 24 hours of Albi sitting until her family returns on Tuesday. We said our farewells and hopped into an Uber taking us to the airport around 11ish. Our Uber was a Tesla - the screen was enormous and the map details and traffic imagery were phenomenal!

Easy check in - somehow our cases were heavier than when we came up (partly the fault of IKEA, partly items we’d reclaimed from storage) but still just under the limit. Best thing was finding a Bluebells Bakery in the airport - we always used to stop in at the Hillsborough Road branch whenever we set off on a roadie heading south on SH1 from Auckland... so we each bought a slice to enjoy on the flight (a chocolate caramel slice and a lemon slice). Before we knew it we were flying back to CHC - with fabulous views of snowy mountains as we hit the South Island.

Ella collected us from the airport and we spent ages unpacking and putting things away in Banjo before she & Josh cooked us dinner (lamb koftas, sticky pork belly & a chunky winter veggies salad) and we took the hoodlum hounds around the block - wearing their glow stick collars in the dark! We thought they looked fab - they were not so sure.

Good to be back in Banjo - there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed! 💤