A happy ending. Well, an ending.

I had Simon&Garfunkel in my head all day, singing Homeward Bound, but not unpleasantly.  And we did - spoiler alert - make it safely home, despite the myriad things that might have gone wrong en route, all of which we angsted over.

Holly and I went out on the beach at sunrise for half an hour.  She looked for more pounamu and I photographed the lovely sky so we were both happy!  Then we went to the airport and checked in for our flight and sat there biting our nails hitting "refresh" on the Departures From Christchurch page until we were reassured that our flight was coming  The air was crisp and clear and the snow-topped mountains looked GORGEOUS.  Alas, no photos because I am wary of wandering around an airport with a camera, and also there was a military helicopter there and a group of people in fatigues in the airport cafe.  I did not want to find out the hard way that it is an offence to photograph army personnel, even if they were standing in front of a picturesque view, so I was forced to simply admire the view instead of recording it for posterity.

Finally, the plane took off!  You could probably hear our sighs of relief from the North Island.  It was a short flight to Christchurch - during which I took a hasty photo out of the dirty aeroplane window and got what was possibly the best photo of the trip, mountain-wise - where our long-suffering sister-in-law met us with our suitcase and treated us to lunch before we clambered aboard the flight back to Auckland.  On the flight down we had had personal tvs in the back of the seat in front; this time we didn't AND we had been seated in Nappy Valley, but we were so glad to be finally getting home that it was a small price to pay.  Picked up our car and came home to face the wrath of our cat who had been left alone for nearly a week.  Well, I say "alone", but the neighbours who undertook to feed her are pretty soft-hearted and they let her into the house at night, so she wasn't THAT hard done by.

I went back to work on Tuesday, but really I need a holiday to recover from my holiday; and unfortunately the rest of the family has declared that This Is Why Travel Sucks And We Should Not Do It, so I fear that our Fun Family Holiday may be our Last Family Holiday.