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This post was published on Monday 28 January 2019.

We woke up in Taranaki much as we’d gone to bed: with complete cloud cover. The view from the van was even worse – you wouldn’t even know there’s a 2,500m high volcano out there!

We’d had a bit of a rude awakening when one of the other people on the campsite set off their car alarm approximately a million times at 5am – not what you want before a 5 hour drive.

We’ve become used to seeing the fire scale warning signs, giving the current fire risk.  But we were rather alarmed – while driving past huge petrochemical plants – to see identical signs giving the ‘risk of facial eczema’!!

That is not a thing you want to see! Thankfully (for humans anyway) it is a warning aimed at farmers, as it affects livestock and there is no cure – the only prevention is to get animals off their paddocks when the risk is high (hot and humid).

For our last night in NZ we had chosen a suite in a fancy hotel in the centre of Auckland, and dinner at the rotating restaurant in the Sky Tower – something to sweeten the bitter pill of the holiday ending! And yes, it has a pillow menu (!) – which we will make use of (why not?!).

This afternoon we met up and had lunch with with one of Ben’s school friends and his family, who moved to Auckland two days ago, so he could work in the hospital for 12 months.

The Sky Tower from our room

Dinner at the revolving restaurant (Orbit 360) was delicious – it does a complete revolution once an hour – and then we came back to the room to finish our packing, and head out to the casino... yes you read that right, the hotel has a casino and we were each given $10 complimentary spending money, so we’re going to head out with that (and only that) and see if we can win back the cost of our holiday!!

Tomorrow morning we return the van at 11.15am and head to the airport for 3.15pm flight to Singapore, and then back to Heathrow. We’ve put coats, hats and gloves at the top of our carry-on luggage... we hear it’s cold in Blighty at the moment...

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