Andy arrived at the Airbnb from the laundromat around 1am. It was good to have that done and we’re glad that he is a night owl.

Ani and Laurie woke up at 8am. Miles and Andy woke up around 930am. Ani did a great job keeping her voice down so Miles would get the sleep he needed.

The kiddos played with cars and trucks and painted watercolors on the kitchen floor until 11am. Then we left to go to the botanical garden playground 10 minutes away.

It was a lovely sunny morning with rain forecasted in the afternoon. Laurie packed the kid’s swim outfits just in case we found a splash pad and we are glad she did because we never made it to the playground.

Next to the playground was a large wading pool with a slide. The kids got in the wading pool and stayed there for about an hour. The main pool is only a foot deep and some smaller pools are even more shallow for smaller kids.

They had a lot of fun splashing around but the sun was intense. Miles went down the slide a few dozen times after taking 30 minutes or so observing other kids having fun.

Even as a baby, Miles took his time warming up to new things. We usually don’t push him much, we’ve learned to just let him go through his journey of becoming comfortable. The challenging aspect of this is that by the time he feels ready to do something, it’s time to go.

We hadn’t put sunscreen on the kids since they were dressed in long sleeves and pants. We were conscious not to stay in the water too long because of this. The sun in New Zealand is intense!

Eventually, everyone got hungry. The kids changed into summer clothes, ate some snacks and Laurie and the kids ran off to catch a little train that they had seen running around the park.

This was a seasonal train on wheels and not on a track. Unbeknownst to us, they caught the very last train ride of the year. It turned into an abbreviated ride as they stopped before completing the loop to be closer to where the train was stored.

Andy waited and waited for where he thought Laurie, Miles and Ani would be returning but the train never came.

About 15 minutes later Laurie and the kids came into view and filled him in about the half train ride.

We walked around looking for another bridge to cross from the park to carpark but there wasn’t one so we doubled back. The kids were having fun running around. And Andy loved the mature trees. They were so tall and so beautiful.

Miles climbed the biggest Monterey Cyprus we’ve ever seen. Then he was off to the races again.

We made it back to the car around 1pm. Ani nursed and looked like she was getting ready for sleep. Andy distracted the kids with the rear window wiper to get them into their car seats.

Back at the rental Laurie put Ani to sleep while Andy played car racing games with Miles on the couch.

Eventually Laurie came out after making a pillow fort for Ani on the bed. She packed a bit, then took over playing with Miles so Andy could cook.

Around 4pm, when Ani was already up and Andy had finished cooking, we went to meet up with Laurie’s friends.

Matt and Claire hiked a portion of the John Muir Trail with Laurie in 2012 and live in Christchurch with their growing family.

We chatted about life in New Zealand, played with their young son, ate dinner and left around 630pm.

They gave us a recommendation for ice cream and Miles really wanted ice cream in a cone so he didn’t eat any ice cream at their house. Talk about convictions! Usually it’s Ani who has (and shares) her strong convictions. But today, Miles knew what he wanted and he stuck to his guns.

Ten minutes from Matt and Claire’s house was the Gelato Lab. They were closing in 45 minutes and when Miles chose the boysenberry vanilla, the gal behind the counter gave him basically two scoops worth to finish off the flavor for the day.

Mikes was stoked. Ani got vanilla in a cone and was very happy as well. Both flavors were really good but we really liked Ani’s vanilla as it was tasty and yet considerably less sweet than Miles’ ice cream.

To burn off some of the sugar, we went to Hillsborough Park two minutes away. The kiddos climbed, swung and ran around.

Andy chatted with his sister who was graciously helping us with check-in, bidding on another skycouch and dealing with whatever arose with regard to air travel.

After 90+ minutes on the phone with customer service, she was told that Air New Zealand had changed planes 3 days prior for our flight to LAX from Aukland and that skycouches weren’t available on that plane.

They hadn’t emailed either of us about this and we were under the impression that we had at least one skycouch, that we have paid for, on the return leg.

At this point we’re thinking we may have to go to the airport 3 hours early tomorrow so we can talk to the staff and figure something out.

We set those worries aside, removed the phones from our rear pockets and played tag with the kiddos on the massive green field.

This was such a lovely park with a wonderfully clean and huge grassy field. Laurie and the kids ran around barefoot and didn’t see or step into any doggie dodo or bird poop or sticks or glass or anything else.

Andy raced with the kids a few times too. Ani got her usual head start. We love watching the kids run. But they are especially cute when they are two. We remember Miles running at Ani’s age and he was just as cute when he ran.

The shake of her hips, the movement of her elbows, her hair swinging from side to side, it’s all just so adorable.

At 815pm we decided it was time to leave. Ani was getting tired, Miles had not eaten any dinner so was running on just ice cream and was also looking tired.

We figured we would try to get ahead of the tantrums but the news of leaving was enough for Miles to have a complete meltdown. No matter how many extra games of tag we played he did not want to leave.

His resistance lasted about the length of time it took Ani to nurse. But eventually everyone was in their seats and we headed back to the rental.

Andy made tortellini for the kids while they played with their cars before both showered. Thankfully neither kiddo put up a struggle to shower tonight. Phew.

They played some more taxi games with Andy before brushing teeth, reading books and going to bed. Ani fell asleep around 1030 and Miles around 1045pm.

We are looking forward to them sleeping around 830pm again when we’re back home. But for now, this is our last sleep in New Zealand before we leave tomorrow afternoon.

What a trip it has been.

We will write a separate post with our final thoughts when home. But for now, we are grateful to have had this adventure together in such a beautiful place.

We hope the kiddos remember some of it, especially Miles. But let’s be honest, he’ll probably remember the ice cream and the sliding door on the van more than the glowworms or glaciers.