You will be delighted to hear that the supposedly amazing 5 hour train ride from Greymouth to Christchurch over the New Zealand Southern Alps looked more like the 13.35 from Euston to Scarborough – it pissed down nearly the whole way, couldn't see a thing and we were trapped listening to a loud American describing every film he'd seen from the 1920s, 1930s etc to present day. I could have strangled him by the time we crawled off…
Had a final dinner with H's chums in Christchurch – I am now totally lamb-ed out, no more for a few weeks at least please – and then spent today in Auckland basically killing time till our flight tonight. Took a bus along the urban beaches, walked back along several, having a paddle, and then stumbled across the aquarium.
I'm never too sure how I feel about trapped sealife, but apparently a lot are rescue animals that they don't feel can return to the wild after being 'saved' (god I hope this isn't some marketing line to lull people into thinking the finned creatures are better off there…)
Anyway – massive ray among other things, not a bad way to wile away an hour or two. Still avoiding the hordes of Chinese people in there, wearing their face masks even in this huge underground NZ fish house.
At airport now – long trip back and I am already desperate to see Scrumpy and Mojo (have been since the day we left), and all you lot obvs. nearly six weeks away means a great first week back of chemo, haircut, back specialist appt, physio first meeting, H's speciaist and the usual fun larks – so if anyone fancies a dog walk in the next few weeks, give me a shout!
Also 'interesting', I suppose, to come back to the post-Brexit world – god knows what awaits so all the more reason to make merry and keep our fingers crossed about everything x