Home sweet home

Friday 4th- Sunday 13th Feb.
What would be the most exciting things about going home? Seeing all the family? Yes. Mums’ cooking? Of course yes. Receiving copious amounts of love from your nieces and embrassing your nephew? Defiantly yes. But the most exciting thing of all was ordering a cup of tea at the airport, in English! Complete bliss! Hearing someone say ‘sweet as’ also gave us a bit of a giggle.

The week was a very chilled out one. My Mum picked us up from the airport, drove us home, and we were greeted by the most amazing sight. Dozens of our photos from our trip all A4 size were covering the walls of our bedroom, going in the order of our trip. Mum had even carefully placed stickers on some of them. We weren’t expecting it and we stood there for ages just looking at our trip in big pictures in front of us. The great thing about it too was feeling excited and proud about our trip again. Our last couple of weeks in Chile hadn’t quiet gone to plan and we were feeling a bit flat about it all (as you may of guessed by the blog entries), so the pictures reminded us just how much we had done. So good on ya Mum!

Mum & Matt the cook!

My sister Tanya and her partner Karl put in the most brilliant welcome home breakfast of: sausages, bacon, eggs, tomato, mushroom, baked beans, spaghetti and much to Pete's delight- HP sauce. Thanks Sis! On the Saturday we had the ‘annual bbq’- so I could catch up with my old kiwi friends and their babies (ladies be warned- I think there is something in the water in Auckland, babies everywhere!).

The girls with a kiwi singer

On Sunday the girls and I also checked out a free music concert in the park that the council puts on every summer. A great excuse to sit on a blanket, eating icecream, listening to kiwi music with our friends Chris and Michelle and their two boys. Pete took this opportunity to stay have the house to himself and watch movies in silence. Our umbilical cord was finally broken!

Madison & Jayde

Brodie

We spent the week chilling out with the family, seeing my Grandad, catching up with friends and meeting avid blog fans (Hi Yvonne!). We spent a day at Auckland Museum with Madison, Jayde and Brodie, my nieces and nephew and Mum took us to a second hand shop so we could buy some new cheap clothes. How nice it was to get rid of the tops I had worn for four months to Tanya and wear something different!

Tanya & Karl

Our big excitement for the week was going to Tree Adventures. It’s a place where there is a series of courses that are erected between trees and you have to go over the obstacles to make it to the flying fox at the end of each course that gets you back on the ground. We were harnessed in at all times, starting low to the ground on the first course, ending up about eighteen metres above the ground on course nine. Pete had to stop on the fourth one- his height was restricting his movements with the safety wire and he hurt his arm, so he was on camera duty. Jayde and Madison made it to the highest course for them, course eight, even doing some of the courses twice. For ten year olds they were amazing, and every time I freaked out I looked at them swinging between trees up high and thought myself silly. It was a little scary, hard work, but great fun. My body hurt the next day, but it was worth it.

Gorgeous little Sabina

It was great as always to be in my home country with my family and for once it didn’t rain! We are now back in Australia, catching up with Pete's family in Mackay, getting to know his little nine month old niece Sabina and trying to get used to the heat while enjoying his Mums cooking. Its back to the real world for us, thinking about where we are going to live and getting jobs, all that fun stuff. What we do know is that we have had the trip of a lifetime, one that will keep us going for a while, and give us fuel for our next one. We saw some awe-inspiring sights, met some wonderful people and got to play with monkeys!! Defiantly a highlight.
So this will be the end of this blog. We hope that you have enjoyed our adventures, laughed at our misadventures as we have. We survived the Amazon, the Inca trail and most importantly, each other! Thank you for your comments and keeping up with us. So until the next trip, goodbye!!! xx Peter and Rochelle

Auckland, New Zealand