Sad to leave the comfort of Jon & Alix's and also Queenstown. Its been a fun place to hang out for a few days, but onwards and the start of our journey from New Zealand to South America. We're heading back to Christchurch, to get on a plane to Auckland and connect through to Santiago de Chile.
So we've time for one more stunning drive through South Island, New Zealand, via Lake Tekapo across the snow-capped Southern Alps and Mount Cook, and it doesnt disappoint, although its a bit cold for Luce to get out of the car! We're back in Christchurch staying at the same place as the other week, and its a bit odd going back to the same hostel. A nice feeling though to be comfortable in our surroundings, and its very quiet for Easter weekend, everyone must be out and about driving around enjoying the scenery.
We enjoy our last night in New Zealand with a few glasses of top notch wine, and a decent enough curry. Its odd how excited we get at all of the food on offer. Indian is definitely our favourite still, but we're going to be a nightmare in curry houses back home from now on, as its never going to be as authentic as when we were in Delhi/Mumbai/Amritsar etc, and we will never be happy!
The longest ever Easter Sunday takes us first to Christchurch airport for the flight up to Auckland. Flying over all that we have just driven through gives us another great perspective on the place - definitely somewhere that we would come back to in an instant, and is to be recommended highly. Just a shame that it is so far from the UK - although that in itself is another great attraction.
We've 6 hours to kill in Auckland airport, which isnt the most exciting in the world, so we have a couple of glasses of wine before getting on the plane, and after a couple more drinks we're dozing away as the Pacific passes below.
Its a whole lotta ocean to fly over, but by the time we land in Santiago, its only just lunchtime on Easter Sunday, even though its about 30 hours since we woke up! Getting into Chile proves to be a bit more tricky as 2 apples have fallen loose into my bag, and are discovered by a sniffer dog while we are waiting at the carousel (fortunately its nothing more serious...) Despite there being bins to dump any stray fruit, and we're not anywhere near going through customs, we're still hauled into interview with an immigration officer, who speaks little English. Despite our protestations, they're following the rules to the letter and we are faced with a US$200 fine. Havent even had time to go to the cashpoint and the wallet is empty so am frogmarched off of the ATM with an officer who speaks a little English. She says that she cant believe they are fining us for two apples, tells me to play dumb and not understand anything, and she'll see what happens. So we pretend that my card isnt working in the ATM, and after much more deliberating amongst practically the whole immigration staff, the fine is cancelled, and we are allowed into Chile and to continue with our eternal Easter Sunday without having to use up the next 3 days budget!
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