Jay was expecting another cute animal under door number 23 of our advent calendar. To much hilarity from me she didn't get one today. Instead she got a spotty hexagonal gift box! It's just two days now to go until christmas day and just one day until we fly home. Our excitement levels are now at a completely catastrophic level! We spent today packing our cases.

We have been taking it in turns to open doors on our calendar. With only one exception I have been getting all the boring ones whilst Jay has been getting all the fun and cute animals. Today was no exception as under door number 22 of our advent calendar was a bauble! I bet Jay gets another cute animal tomorrow. We tidied up, sorted out and did our laundry today as in a couple of days the camper van is going back. We have been away from home for too long and we ...

We awoke and opened door 21 on our advent calendar. Today we discovered a very cute reindeer wearing a christmas hat. After brekky we had to move the camper van to a different spot on the camp site. This was because our site was booked from today by a family who have spent the last twenty five christmases here in the exact same place. Today was a big chill out day. We just relaxed, read our books, listened to music and had a lot of cuddles!

When we opened our advent calendar we were thrilled to discover a turkey wearing a christmas hat. We had decided to go into the city centre today so after brekky we walked to the bus stop. The bus journey took about forty minutes on the bumpy quake ravaged roads. We passed quite a few damaged houses and loads of empty plots where presumably houses had stood before the earthquakes. Some houses had been split in half by the force of the quake. As the bus got close ...

We had a long lie in and got up late. We discovered a guitar under door number 19 of our advent calendar. We just chilled out for what was left of the morning. Later on with the sun blazing down we went to the beach which was only a couple of minutes walk away. It was a lovely and very typical New Zealand beach as it was strewn with washed up timber as far as the eye could see. We really enjoyed our walk hand in hand along the sand and beside the lapping waves. O...