...I arrive in Madrid annoyed because I'm Brussels I got charged for excess baggage but all worries disappear when my feet hit the Spanish soil and experience 26C heat at night...I walk miles and miles across the enormous Madrid terminals appreciating signs warning travelers to release the brake on their baggage trolley as they approach the end of an escalator...I wait a long time for my bag and even longer for the car even as a random guy tries to cut in the...

...I while away my last traveling hours at the Shanghai airport, buying some souvenirs, a mango puff (delicious) and some stuff in Starbucks (luckily my card works here this time!)...I marvel at why Chinese people would put "Mind your head" warning signs next to escalator handrails, some 4 m above the ground level, where no head would ever or indeed should ever find itself...I board the plane to Paris, freezing my ass off in the waiting line at the gate. Some fun...

...I get up refreshed and prepare for the trip back...I do my last shopping - you'd be surprised but what do I take back to Belgium on this last day? Beer and chocolate! :D...I visit the moving Quake City - a multimedia museum devoted to earthquakes in the region and realize walking around that the devastating effects of the 2011 quake still very much in evidence in central Christchuch...I'm concluding New Zealand is crazy about dairy: every other hotel I...

...it's beautiful and sunny and I am really grateful for this after the recent rains...I discover Christchurch is NZ's second city to have Uber, after Auckland of course...I notice the existence of interesting sounding brands of home appliances here, which I assume must be local: Westinghouse, Parmco, RobinHood, Omega, Fisher&Paykel......I eat my next to last cooked NZ breakfast at a great little place called Brigitte's...taking advantage of great wea...

...I get up and drive to nearby Moeraki beach to see the beautiful round boulders the area is famous for. Despite gale force wind which makes my car wobble on the road, it is quite sunny and the beach is full of tourists. I find it quite commercial but nice....I push on to a desolate mountain area, first on narrow country highways then on a bad gravel road for 25 km to see Mt Sunday, which played the location of the city of Edoras in Lord of the Rings movies. Unf...