Laurie and Ani were up at 730am. Andy was up at 8, and we woke up our teenager (Miles) at 9am because our Airbnb checkout was at 10am.

Laurie wanted a hearty breakfast, so Andy made potatoes, minced bacon and eggs in hopes of finishing off all of our remaining food.

Then we finished packing everything and loading up the clown car, washed the dishes and were outta there by 1010am.

We drove to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve 20 minutes away. It was a Monday but given it’s the 23rd of December we figure many people were probably off from work because it was packed.

While in line to pay for admission, we also purchased food to feed the eel and the farm animals.

We wanted to catch the 1045am feeding of the otters but even after walking quickly through the maze that was the reserve, we missed it by about 5 minutes.

Miles complained it was too hot the whole time we were there. And Ani was starting to fade and just wanted Laurie to carry her.

We decided to go see the kiwis, feed the eels, feed the sheep and the goats and leave. Thankfully both kids perked up when they were feeding the animals in the shade.

The Kiwi area was dark and only lit with red lights. Kiwis are nocturnal and this wildlife reserve has done a good job replicating their natural habitat during daylight hours.

We only saw the hind of one kiwi and didn’t linger or try to see more. We left with Miles saying to Laurie that she was having more fun than him on this outing.

We all laughed on our way to feed the eels. This was especially cool because it was novel. Andy found it interesting that ground meat was being fed to eels. And it looked like venison.

Ani wasn’t too keen but Miles and (especially) Laurie were enjoying themselves and looking for the smaller eels to feed.

Around 1pm we left. Ani nursed and fell asleep soon after in her car seat as we drove to the city center for more cream from Rollickin Gelato and another go at Mashawe Mediterranean BBQ.

Sadly the Mediterranean restaurant was closed so Laurie and Miles got ice cream while Andy drove a bit to keep Ani asleep and went to pick them up ten minutes later.

We went to New World to buy some Manuka honey to take home, then to Wenderkrisen campervan rental to return the car seats they graciously loaned to us to use with our rental car, then off to the airport.

After a short gas stop, we parked the rental car, returned the keys to the clown car back to Alamo and entered the madhouse that was the departures terminal in Christchurch.

Airports during Christmas are busy no matter where you are in the world. But the Air New Zealand area of the airport was especially busy due to cancelled flights and people trying to get on other flights. It reminded us of the fiascos with Southwest Airlines of recent years during Christmas travel.

As we mentioned in the last post, while trying to check us in for our flights Andy’s sister was informed that we had been assigned a plane that did not have any skycouches.

Being the quick thinker she is, she called and asked if there was a different flight that had skycouches. Sure enough there was another flight scheduled to depart Aukland 30 minutes later with open sky couches.

She rebooked us all onto that flight. And it was a good thing she did because our flight from Christchurch to Aukland was delayed by 45 minutes, which, turned into a 1.5 hour delay.

When we landed in Aukland we had 30 minutes before our flight to LAX was scheduled to depart.

The flight crew was incredibly helpful and assured us that they had notified all of the connecting international flights of our delay and that they would wait for us.

They also notified the passengers that were not connecting to remain seated to let those connecting deplane first. Some listened, most didn’t.

Once off the plane we were off for the races.

If one misses the shuttle, it’s a 20 minute walk from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. When we walked out there was no bus so we ran for it.

Laurie was carrying Ani, Miles was rolling his suitcase and Andy was carrying Ani’s suitcase and two bags.

In just over 10 minutes and Andy dripping with sweat we arrived at the international terminal. Still having to get through customs we were hopeful things would go quickly, but we were told to go to the family line that was long and slow moving.

With no employee to speak to, we waited, trusting that our bird would still be at the gate. Once through customs we ran to gate 8, only to find a sea of people standing about.

Andy asked someone if they were waiting for the 810pm flight to LAX and was assured that not only had our plane not left, but that they had not even started the boarding process.

Turns out we didn’t need to run after all. At least we got our blood pumping before our flight!

We were relieved, but even more so we were proud of our little travelers. We made this mad dash fun and the kids were in good spirits at the gate.

We boarded the plane and found our seats. Laurie and the kiddos were in one row with a skycouch and Andy was assigned a seat in the middle section two rows behind them.

The kind flight attendant for our section asked a solo traveller to switch with Andy so he could be across the aisle from Laurie and the kids, which she did.

Andy still wanted two skycouches, especially one behind the other and noticed what seemed to be 3 empty rows at the end of the section we were in, all with skycouches.

He went to investigate as we were taxing and saw a solo traveler in the middle row. One of Andy’s mottos is, it never hurts to ask. And another is, you will never be told yes if you don’t ask, so he asked the gentleman if he was willing to move one row forward or back so we can all be together.

The man had no problems with this and moved forward one row. Andy thanked him for his consideration and we all moved before taking off.

It’s a wonderful thing when a plan comes together. Now all we need is for the kids to sleep!

But we are not wed to outcomes tonight. We have set ourselves up as best we can and now we will see how the evening unfolds.

The kids watched cartoons before and while having their dinner consisting of chicken and rice. Laurie ate lamb and rice. Andy was not feeling well and passed on the meal. He ate the breakfast he had made before taking off at the Christchurch airport and now his stomach was very upset.

We helped the kiddos change into their jammies after dinner. As the cabin lights dimmed both Laurie and Andy changed into comfier and not sweaty clothes.

Around 11pm the kiddos went to sleep. Ani fell asleep nursing and Miles fell asleep to Andy caressing his back and stomach.

Once again the sky couches were a godsend. Miles slept for 7 hours and Ani for 5.

We ate the remaining New Zealand fruit on the descent into LAX. Having missed the final trash pickup, Laurie put the half eaten apple and tangerine peels in a bag to throw out after deplaning. But there was no garbage bin to be found.

At customs we were coldly informed that kids need their own Global Entry (not the case for TSA precheck) when traveling with adults, and were escorted to the standard line.

Once at the counter Andy jokingly declared our half eaten apple and we were given the 10-14 code immediately.

Andy still joked around with the agent, but he knew we were going to be taken to a different area. Apparently in LAX they purposefully do not have garbage cans before customs and they encourage you to leave garbage on the plane. We were trying to be considerate, but alas.

Once the customs agents realized that we really only had a half eaten apple to throw out and nothing else to declare, we were finally let through and able to retrieve our 2 checked bags.

All bags accounted for, we headed out to the loud, stinky and busy curbside pickup of LAX’s international terminal. Andy’s dad picked us up and we drove 1.5 hours back through awful Los Angeles traffic to Glendale where Andy’s parents live.

Ani, Miles and Laurie fell asleep on the drive. We decided to wake the kids when we arrived to allow them to play a little before getting in the car again for our final flight to Boise from Burbank airport.

Sadly, our time in Glendale was only 40 minutes. The kids chose to play rather than eat which saddened Andy’s mom who had set a beautiful table with all of Miles’ favorite foods.

She was concerned they would be hungry so she and Laurie packed a bunch of food to go and headed to the Burbank airport.

The traffic on the highway wasn’t bad but it took us 20 minutes to drive the 1/8 mile from the start of the airport to the drop off location. We should have known it would busy at Burbank airport too. Really busy.

Apparently we missed the window for Alaska’s bag drop, arriving 45 minutes ahead of our flight rather than 50. Alaska airlines checked our bags but didn’t assure they would arrive with us in Boise.

To make the longest day ever more interesting, Ani’s bag was selected for screening. From previous travel experiences we have learned that if one item gets selected for screening, TSA often wants to check all belongings in the party. To skip this step Laurie took the remaining bags and the kids to the gate.

Turns out they selected the wrong bag, but the pride of the TSA agents would not allow them to just let Andy leave with Ani’s bag.

Andy’s calm and friendly demeanor payed off and he made it to the gate with literally only a minute to spare. We were the last to board the plane and we took off shortly after.

It was a smooth flight home, with Ani seated with Laurie coloring and Miles seated next to Andy eating and coloring. The final excitement of the day was when Laurie and Ani got caught in the bathroom during a strong bit of turbulence. Luckily it was short lived.

Around 745pm, Andy’s sister picked us up from the Boise airport. After a marathon 24 hour travel day we were finally home.

Returning home is usually bittersweet but we were all ready to rest and just be home, especially Miles, who was already grabbing all of his favorite toys and wanting to play with all of them.

Tonight we get to sleep in our own beds without any concern of bugs!

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.

We all slept well. We are not sure if it was knowing that the end was near or the rainy weather, but we all slept without getting bitten once. It was magical!

We woke up to the sun trying to break through the clouds. A nice breeze kept blowing the clouds in and out. Laurie and the kids enjoyed the wind and played soccer outside while Andy did dishes after breakfast.

As per usual we were moving at 11am. We drove 8 minutes back up toward the village and to the Bealey Valley Track parking area.

Our dilly dallying this morning paid off. The clouds were clearing and it had stopped raining many hours before. The wind was blustery in the early morning but had calmed down considerably by the time we set foot on the trail.

The Track sign states the hike was 1.2 km and 25 mins. We thought this would be great since we had to return the campervan by 430pm today.

The trail started off relatively flat and meandered through a beautiful forest of mountain-beech trees. Immediately we were greeted with birdsongs that tried very hard to drown out the noise of the road and increased Saturday traffic.

Surprisingly, the trail started by traveling downhill on a series of staircases to a footbridge over the Bealey River.

After crossing the Bealey chasm, the trail went up steeply over wet tree roots before opening up to a beautiful view of the Waimakariri River Valley and surrounding mountains.

We realized at this point that the trail sign distance and times posted were for one way travel. Now we’re confused because some of them seem to be for round trip and some one way.

We haven’t done any hikes where this would be a concern given the short distances and time we are out for, but we are curious and will have to look this up.

The mountain-beech trees gave way to tussock grasslands and subalpine scrub. The trail was all boardwalk through this area.

When we entered the canopy of trees again, the boardwalks continued, but this time there were rises and descents built into them.

The kids had a blast through this section of trail. Eventually we came to a viewpoint of the striking mountains above with the Bealey River raging right before us. It was here we decided to turn around.

Laurie had promised to give the kids 2 gummies each at the turnaround point but had fallen one gummy short. When she cut one of the gummies in half and presented one and a half gummies to Ani, she lost her sh*t.

Miles had been saving most of his gummies so he could have them when back at the van and watching while we drove back to Christchurch but Ani had been eating hers.

Miles was content with his 1.5 gummies, but Ani felt the injustice deep in her bones. And she let us hear about it too. The river was no match for Ani’s shrill cries.

Laurie picked her up and tried to calm her down. After remembering we had more gummies in the van, Ani did finally calm down.

She was tired and ready for a nap. And feeling pressed for time since we still had to drive 1.5 hours to Christchurch and stop to dump, then stop again to fill the propane and get diesel, we were motivated to keep the train moving.

We made it back to the van by giving the kids more fruit snacks and playing games with them. Laurie challenged Miles to jump from step to step and see if he can do a whole staircase. Then she challenged Andy and Miles to do them together.

We all had fun and were in good spirits when we got to the van. Everyone got in their seats without much of a hassle because the kids were going to watch for 30 minutes while we drove.

And what a drive it was. The hour or so from Arthur’s Pass to Christchurch is incredibly beautiful.

The twisty two lane road hugs the lakes and hillsides while offering stunning views of the surrounding mountains. It was a lovely way to begin the end of our trip in the van.

At 3pm Andy reached the dump with both kids asleep. Stopping for an extended period of time when the kiddos are asleep is challenging because they usually wake up. Especially since Andy had to open the van’s rear doors to access the grey water hose.

Sure enough Miles woke up half way through the dumping of the grey tank. Andy entertained Miles so Ani could keep sleeping.

Once done with that chore, we headed toward the drive through propane station. After a few moments of driving, Andy realized he was on the wrong side of the road!

This was the first and only time he made this mistake on the whole trip. Thankfully he corrected immediately without incident. But since he was now distracted by what he had just done, he didn’t go slow enough across the train tracks and the bumps rattled Ani awake.

She immediately asked to watch, which they both did for about 40 minutes while we drove into Christchurch. There aren’t many places that offer to fill propane tanks, most just switch them out. The location that offers this service is a drive through but unfortunately they close at 3 pm on Saturdays. We got there at 4 pm.

Knowing that we tried, and that there was no other place within 15 minutes to fill up the propane tank, we filled up on diesel and arrived at the rental company at 415pm.

The folks were busy giving two couples their tutorials before their departures. One of the couples was from Washington State. We gave them our fans, window mesh, left over TP and hand soap as well as tips and answered a few of their questions while waiting for someone to inspect our van.

The folks at Wenderkrisen are very nice and polite. Not only did they listen to our feedback about the lack of ventilation and protection from the bugs, they let it slide that the propane wasn’t all the way full and let us borrow the car seats for two more days to use with our rental car.

They also suggested Andy go to the airport solo to get the rental car. This would avoid having to put the car seats and all of our stuff in the shuttle van, only to take it all out of the van, walk to the rental counter, then to the rental car itself and load all of it again – all while doing it with kids.

Laurie and the kiddos stayed back and had popsicles and hot chocolate. Sugared up to the wazoo made Andy’s task by far the easier one.

Andy was given the keys to a Suzuki Swift. It is the size of a Toyota Yaris and a far cry from the 25ft van he has been driving for over 3 weeks. Sitting much lower would also take some getting used to.

Ten minutes later Andy was back at the campervan rental company where the crew was well underway cleaning our van as it was going back out the following morning. Talk about a quick turnaround.

Andy found the kiddos and Laurie sitting in the lobby. The kids came out and ran around like they were wired directly to a battery.

Miles was immediately disappointed because our rental wasn’t a minivan with sliding doors. But when he got in and saw that he could hand crank open and close his window himself, he was ecstatic.

We drove to our Airbnb 12 minutes away, unpacked and looked for a place to get pizza. It was incredibly difficult to look at the restaurants that came up on our search under a barrage of questions and requests and comments and general craziness from the kiddos, so we decided to go back to Little High Eatery with the pizza place we had been to before we rented the van.

We got to Little High at 630pm on a Saturday and experienced a completely different vibe. Our previous visit here was around 4pm on a weekday. There were only a handful of people there at that time. Today there was hardly a place to sit.

We ordered two cheese pizzas from BASE Woodfired Pizza and two burgers from Bacon Bros. Burgers next door.

The pizzas were slightly burnt this time and not as good as the first time we were there. It was a bit of a letdown but Miles still ate 4 1/2 pieces of pizza.

After dinner we went back to another familiar place, The Margaret Mahy Family Playground. The kids made a beeline for the in-ground trampolines.

Andy was craving ice cream so we decided to treat the kids and asked if they wanted some. They really wanted to play a little bit longer so after 15 mins at the park we walked one block for ice cream.

Again, being Saturday around 730pm, Rollickin Gelato on New Regent Alley was packed, with a line going out the door.

To the disappointment of Miles, we ordered two scoops of ice cream in a cup instead of a cone. After getting over this disappointment, the kiddos practically had a competition of who could eat more. We’re not sure either of them tasted anything.

Sugared up we went back to the park and the kids played for about 30 minutes before we went back to the Airbnb.

We all needed to shower but Ani just refused and refused. After 30 minutes or so, she finally went into the shower with Andy. But Ani wanted Laurie to hold her hand. Except when she did so, opening the door made Ani cold and she would cry.

Eventually Laurie, who had already showered, went in the shower as well and we were able to wash Ani’s hair and clean her body properly for the first time since we took possession of the van over 3 weeks ago.

Miles had showered with Laurie to show Ani that it was fun. And while his efforts had not helped, we were appreciative he had played the role of older brother really well and tried to help his younger sister.

Around 1030pm, Laurie took Ani into their bedroom to nurse and go to sleep. The plan was for Miles to go sleep with them too once Ani was out so Andy could go to the laundromat.

This rental also had the washer/dryer combo but for the life of us we could not figure out how to dry the clothes Laurie had put in the machine.

With the help of some online research we figured that the machine “dries” the clothes with a spin cycle. Then, ideally one finishes drying the clothes outside on a clothesline. This would be fine except thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow.

So we found a 24 hour laundromat nearby. It was late and this is kinda crazy but we need clean clothes. As Andy likes to joke- he can sleep when he’s dead.