New Zealand, Day #14 - Our Last Day and Tips for Hiking in New Zealand

Saturday, March 3, 2018:

Sad day :( I always have mixed feelings when it's time to go home. I'm a homebody but I love travelling to see new places. I'm sad about leaving the warm weather for the snow storm that is normally happening when it's time for me to return. I'm happy about seeing my kitties and sleeping in my own bed. I'm sad about leaving the people I'm there to see or who I've been travelling with. I'm happy to be back in the comfort of my own home. So many mixed feelings.

Our flight wasn't until 8PM so we had some time to go shopping on Queen St. For a small city they have awesome shops on their downtown strip and it feels like shopping in a much larger city. I ended up only buying a tank from Cotton On and a few souvenirs from the souvenir shops. Nisha got some sweet Oakleys to become part of the shiny blue sunglass crew.

Bar in the Auckland airport - I thought it looked pretty cool.

The excruciatingly long flight back to Vancouver. Going there was 14 hours and the return flight was 12.5 hours. I watched the first three Harry Potter movies on the flight there and "slept"  about 4 hours. The flight back I watched the next 2.5 Harry Potter movies and "slept" about 5 hours. I say "slept" because I'm such a light sleeper that I'm constantly waking up and it's a very interrupted sleep.

Our flight left at 8:05PM Saturday night and we landed in Winnipeg at 9:00PM Saturday night. I messaged my dad when we got to Auckland and he asked if I had taken a time machine instead of a plane, lol.

So there are the pictures from our trip. I didn't post all of them because there were over 1200 but these were the best ones. If you have any questions about where we went or if you have any recommendations for the next we go, please let me know!!!

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Tips for hiking in New Zealand:

My boyfriend is a seasoned hiker but we definitely didn't pack appropriately. Things I highly recommend to pack for hiking, especially for Southland:

• good, waterproof hiking boots
• rain pants and jacket with hood
• lined waterproof jacket with hood
• warm sweater
• toque and gloves/mitts
• umbrella
• rain poncho
• light backpack
• waterbottle
• snacks (can purchase there)
• shorts and pants that can fit over them
• sunglasses
• hat or bandeau/multi bandana

As noted in my post when we landed in Christchurch, we stopped at Macpac to buy warmer sweaters and rain jackets since we were ill prepared and it was raining the first two days we were there.