Back to Auckland

We arrived back to Auckland after the fun and games of the South Island. We went straight to Aunty Lindas for a lovely home cooked meal. We had an evening with all the family and kids, lots of fun.
We had extended our time in NZ so that we could spend as much time with the family as possible, and this is what we did over the next few weeks. We spent our days going for bush and beach walks with Sera, Keags and Kahlia and our evenings between the family. It was so nice to spend so much time with my cousins and their kids.
We had lots of fun filled evenings in with Mel & Brett and lots of home cooked meals.
Maureen & co all went up to the Bay of Islands for a few days so we had a few days catching back up with the family. I spent a morning with Sera and Kahlia watching her and her friends dance which was so much fun, they are all so cute!
When Sunday came round we all went to Aunty Lindas for one of her yummy Sunday Roasts and when I say all it really was all the family, so 17 of us. It was so nice having all the family together and just having lots of laughs and fun. I did tell them that Brett and I had a 6 month visa and we could be very tempted not to leave!
Bretts parents were due to New Zealand for our last two weeks there, they were staying at Eves cousins house about a 40 min drive from where we were. We were going to pick them up from the airport so had to find out where we were taking them back to. So after dropping our rental car back we headed over to there house and Brett & I made Brett go and knock to see if it was there house, it was. We were invited in for tea and cakes and the three of us spent a good couple of hours there catching up with them. We went to get Eve & Al at the airport, they were expecting their cousins Ray & Pauline but we were there lovely surprise. As we predicted they were the last through after being too honest on the immigration card and getting all their bags searched. We took them back to Ray & Paulines and spent a few hours there catching up with them. They were off to the South Island for a week or so, so we wouldn't be seeing them for a bit.
We spent the next week or so with the family, we spent a few afternoons & evenings with Jo, Mikayla and Callum which was lovely. The kids are all so lovely and have such lovely personality's it was so nice just to spend so much time with them and for them to get to know us all so well.
Maureen & co's final weekend came round very quickly and before we knew it, it was there last weekend. Brett took Brett,Steven, Adam & Me to a tree climbing day which was sooooooo much fun. We basically went to a forest and climbed from one tree to another across wired ropes, harnessed up and trying not to fall. We had to crawl through loops, come down on Tarzan ropes, climb up nets and fly on flying foxes. We started of low and ended very high and it was scary and at one point it took me about 40mins to get across one of the climbs. You had to zig zag across the rope climbing over bits of wood along the way. I was so scared and freaked out half way through and there really is no turning back! We had a great day and had the memories and aching for days after!!
We had a lovely final evening with the family and we went to the airport to say goodbye. I would love to have jumped in their suitcase with them to come home and see every one for a bit and found it really hard saying goodbye to them all.
We had a few more weeks with the family and made the most of it all with the family and kids, it was then our turn to say good bye and it was awful. I was dreading it for days before and when we had our final roast at Lindas and had to say goodbye to them it was just horrible. The years begun. I tried the best I could to hold it together but it was hard. when I said bye to Jo, Mikayla & Callum and Mikayla didn't want us to leave and got very upset it took all I had in me not to sit there and cry and say that we would say. We then had to say bye to Sera Reu Keegs and Kahlia and that was just as sad. Mel, Brett, Sera & Keegs came to the airport with us and it was awful leaving them all.
We had such a fab time in NZ. We loved every minute of our time there and loved hanging out with the family. Hopefully we will all meet again some where very soon be it NZ, the UK or in between. xxxx
Next stop Australia....