No longer Jaffas!

Eliza writes:

We drove down from Auckland today, leaving at just before 8am. We expected maybe not normal traffic for a long weekend, or even normal for Christmas Eve, but what we found was... pretty much no traffic!

LIke a completely smooth ride out of the city. Our only guess is that most people that were going to leave Tamaki Makaurau for the holidays did so back on the 17th or last weekend, as soon as they were able.

This meant we weren't tired from the drive when we reached the coast, to get the gorgeous views of the Tasman Sea and Maunga Taranaki:

On arrival at the house we were reunited with our cat, although not entirely sure how much he's missed us really, he's found several comfortable places around the garden here. He may be a little hopeful in this location if he thinks he's going to make new friends though...

The plan from here is:

Christmas with the whanau here in New Plymouth.

Then we fly to Invercargill on Dec 31st, early in the morning, so we can do the final shopping for things we don't really want to, or can't, check in on the plane ride (food, fuel for the camp burner, etc). Oh, and Vaughan may do a bit of birding to see if he can get his year count up with a few South Island species before 2021 ends.

Then, finally, day 1 on the trail will also be day 1 of 2022! This starts with a bus trip to Bluff, and then the rest of the day is us walking right back to Invercargill. It feels a bit strange to start and finish day 1 of Te Araroa at the same place, but it is a leg that we really can't miss!