Today was basically just a long, long day of doing nothing, other than sleeping in airports and commuting around. After having spent the extra day in Queenstown (yesterday), today was our last minute change day to fly up to Christchurch and catch our original flight up to Auckland. Times of flights didn't work out quite so perfectly, so it meant a fair amount of waiting between flights. This morning we caught a bus from our hostel over to Frankton airport, which was absolutely tiny - just sizable enough to actually be called an airport really :) There we had 3.5 hours to kill before the flight, as the bus transfer times weren't very regular, so couldn't even have caught a later one. But anyway, enough time for some coffee, breakfast and a nap.

The flight to Christchurch wasn't too bad, where again we had a few hours wait until our connecting flight. We thought we'd try use some time by heading into the city centre to have a look again at some of the earthquake damage and the state of the place. But after waiting over half an hour for the city bus which never arrived, we gave up with that, deciding there just wouldn't be enough time to get in and back... and definitely wouldn't want to miss our flight up to Auckland.

Nearby was the Antarctic Center, so after a 10 minute walk there we decided to check it out. It wasn't really worth paying the full entry fee for such limited time, so we hung around the entrance, looked at some of the promotion posters and items on display, and then headed back to the airport once we had wasted enough time. And there, once again, we lay around on some couches waiting for time to pass. Did I mention today didn't really involve all that much!? :)

Eventually time came to board the plane, and we headed up north into Auckland, where we were met by Craig and taken back to the Haiden's place for a welcome drink and some dinner. Was good to catch up with them again, after having been right round the islands and seen and done plenty. The first evening catch up was more about the trip and my plans, this was a catch up and various stories from the past couple of weeks. And as before, another excellent meal by Mrs Haiden. Later on, Donna popped round and brough some dessert with her. It had been ages (over a year) since I had last seen her, and that would've been in London as well. So good to catch up and chat with her again.

Craig's just left now to head back home, and will catch up with him in the morning on our city sightseeing tour of Auckland. Can't believe the holiday's almost coming to an end... it's just flown by! But time flies when you're having fun I guess!