I don't even know how to describe the weirdness of the two weeks in England. It's been absolutely crazy and probably one of the most significant parts of my entire trip. I'm sure there are many people who go away for a semester or year for university but then return to their home town for summer - but can you imagine going back to the place you left five years ago which is on the other side of the world without any intention whatsoever of returning? Totally bizaaaaarre.

First things first, arriving at the airport. The flight was quite lame and delayed but then that's what you expect with Ryanair. Initially it took ages to even take off because the wings froze really quickly, then the flight was long due to a storm and finally when we did land parts of the plane broke so it had to be manually pulled in to its parking spot! What's worse is that we had to go through a customs things (which we've not yet had to do within Europe). Matt didn't have a European passport so it took aaaaages!! By the time we got out it was about 00.30 and I was worried my aunt would have just thought we never made it! We were supposed to arise at like 10.30pm D: so we dashed through (I didn't even get a chance to look a duty free) to try and find her. Also we realised it was our first time in an officially English speaking country since we left America! (Nearly four months ago)

Now I'm sure a lot of you can relate to the amazingness of seeing someone you missed for the first time in absolutely ages! By far the very hardest thing about leaving England was not knowing when I would see the fam again. Also another thing I noticed was that despite many people saying I still have an English accent, hearing a totally fresh and crisp English accent sounded REALLY weird for me!

We were really lucky because we were picked up from the airport. We flew in to Stanstead and hadn't realised how far away it is from everything! I don't know how we would have coped trying to get to the coast at that hour otherwise haha! I don't think we got home until around 3am-ish but my other aunt was there waiting which was amazing because we've still been talking pretty much daily since I left England! So there was lots of catching up and eventually we sleeeeept.

Our first few days were spent in Andover. I don't really have an emotional attachment to this place since my aunt and her partner only moved there quite recently! But it gave us a chance to catch up with both the aunts, see some nice English countryside, and play with their 27829191 pets! We also made a trip to Tesco which was embarrassingly exciting. We saw so many foods that I had totally forgotten about and I ended up leaving the supermarket with a bag stuffed full of Bourbon biscuits, potato waffles, flapjack and so on! We also saw a polish food section which was pretty cool since of course we are pretty familiar with that too!

A few days later we headed to Bournemouth which is the city that my grandparents have always lived and is about twenty five minutes drive from my home town. I still talk to my grandparents like daily so it was so good to see them! They came out to New Zealand two years ago, but two years is still absolutely ages. They also had an accident last year which made being apart even worse. It was weird to be back in the house though since the downstairs had all changed a lot! Upstairs was the exact same as I always remembered it, like my princess bedroom and lots of my drawings everywhere! I was worried that my childhood master art piece wouldn't look so good now that I've grown up - but it's ok, it still looked awesome!

My grandparents were just as they were before :D I'm sure nan was worrying that we would notice she was still recovering from her injuries but that wasn't the case! Grandad is still as hilarious as ever. He also helped me to expand my vocabulary - although I won't be posting what exact words he told us! (Nan you will understand what I'm talking about).

We did quite a bit during our time in Bournemouth. For example on the first night we went to see an old friend of mine who coincidently lives around the corner from my grandparents. We spent the evening drinking rum and Russian vodka and successfully managed to sneak back in to my grandparents house without being that noisy!

We also did some local sightseeing such as visiting the Christmas markets in the city centre and going to the beach! One of the things I have learnt about myself is that I love being the sea. I'm not a strong swimmer and don't actually go to the beach THAT often but it's something I've always grown up with and been close to! So now after having lived in a city hours away from the coast I've learnt to really appreciate the seaside! Fortunately when we arrive back in NZ I'll be seeing the sea daily again :D

We managed to see my great nan too! We went to have a nice cup of tea with her with nanny and grandad and she is also a hilarious character. She may be in her 80s but she still has a very quick sense of humour! Me and Matt were pretty much laughing the whole time.

I should also mention the insane amount of food nan and grandad got for me and Matt. I am still recovering now. Seriously the cupboards were stocked with everything I love ranging from soya yogurts to quorn nuggets to digestive biscuits to bags of fruit to hula hoops and so on.

We spent Christmas Day in Bournemouth with my family. It was amazing because they all came down! My aunties, uncles and cousins as well as some of the pets! In total there were like eight adults, a teenager, two children, two dogs and a kitten. So it was absolutely manic. But they were very naughty and spoilt me so much! I felt guilty because I had just bought them very little gifts from various countries and then I ended up upwelling a huge bags worth of amazing gifts including a big winter coat, lots of cash, heaps of make up, passport cases, a beautiful scarf, vouchers and so on! But it was such an amazing day. From the champagne breakfast to the best today dinner ever to the lazing around. I've definitely missed winter Christmases!

Matt and I also went to the town where I actually grew up and lived in until I was 16. I was pretty nervous about going back but there was no need to be. Except for a couple of small shops closing down the majority of it was the exact same. The buildings and the people. Poor Matt was dragged backwards and forwards through memory lane as I showed him my old house, my secondary school, the church I used to go to when I was a child and so on! We also ate excessive amounts of greasy chips because we all know there's no where in the world that can do greasy vinegary soaked chips like England :D

Whilst we were in Lymington we stayed with my other nan! Usually she comes out to New Zealand each year except last year she went to America instead so it had also been two years since I saw her.

When we arrived one of my aunts on dad's side, and her daughter! It was a very nice surprise - as was the nut roast they had brought with them :D my cousin was heading off to Costa Rica early the next morning so they couldn't hang round for long.

Nan was looking after a cat which of course Matt was delighted about. It meowed aaaaaall the time and it's hair got everywhere haha! But I miss having pets (Ghana please come home soon waaaah!!!). Nan also spoilt us by taking us for a nice drive along the seaside, a pub lunch at a place she used to run (I had the best soup of my life), endless glasses of beautiful wine, breakfast ready as soon as we got up and so on!

We managed to catch up with a handful of friends which was nice. Except we only did it in Wetherspoons (cheap alcohol) which meant we probably spent a grand total of like ten hours in one spot. We were literally rotating groups haha! But it was nice to see their faces. No one had really changed at all though to be honest.

After Lymington we went to Bournemouth again where we just chilled out really for a few days. I did some shopping with one of my Christmas vouchers and got four new dresses :D

On the last day of the year we woke up early and were picked up by my aunt! Because it was the last chance we would have to spend with her we went for a really nice drive and went to Stonehenge and then she dropped us off at my other aunts :) it was also a scary drive though since the car sounded funny as if it was going to break :O

So at this point we were back at my other aunts house in Andover. It was really sad how quickly our time in Bournemouth and Lymington went. I thought two and a half weeks would be more than enough time in England but it wasn't even close. Trying to do catch ups after five years meant I was only able to catch up with a handful of people I would have liked to have seen!

But my aunty's house is really fun so we were distracted but the crazy kitties and dogs! Me and Matt just relaxed for the afternoon that day. I accidentally finished a bottle of wine with my aunt and then we had a super delicious dinner, again! Soon after me and Matt headed off to London to see the new year in. We were very fortunately that my aunts fiancé agreed to drive for half an hour to drop us off at a station closer to London which saved us £15 each! So about $60 in total!

We arrived in London around 7pm I think. There were quite a bit of people around but it wasn't packed at first. We were near the London eye and we decided to do some sightseeing before it got really busy! So we went to cross Westminster bridge, got to the other side and suddenly it was packed. We spent maybe 1.5/2 hours within about 100m trying to decide whether to stay or find a better spot because technically this was the best location to view the fireworks, but it was so cramped we would be standing here for the next four hours being unable to breathe and being knocked around. Going to do sightseeing at this point was no longer an option, however we did decide to push our way out and head further along the river to Lambeth bridge which, whilst was quite far down, still got us an awesome view and we could still breathe.

Typically I snuck off to grab some greasy chips and vinegar whilst Matt waited to secure our spot. I think at about 11pm we had some friends from Poland arrive to join us! It was becoming busy very quickly. At about 11.50 it started to rain! And everyone got their umbrellas out and made like a big canopy across the bridge with them haha! It probably would have killed the view for many people so we were lucky that we were right against the bridge edge.

When the clock struck midnight, the fireworks went off, some people their umbrellas in the river and even more let their champagne soak all over us! My coat was drenched and I probably smelt like an alcoholic, but it was a hilarious way to welcome 2014. The fireworks went on for at least 10 minutes, and were by far the best I've ever seen in my life!

Getting back to the station afterwards was a bit of a challenge. We wanted to leave as quickly as we could since we had to get up early in the morning. I think we would have left the bridge by 12.20 and headed straight for Waterloo. However there were of course thousands of others who had the same intention. We didn't make it to the station until about an hour later, even though it would usually take only fifteen minutes usually!

The next day we woke up early to go to museums with my aunt and her fiancé. We went to the natural history museum which was aaaaaamazing! I had been there before but it had been years! We walked around for like three or four hours and then it was really hitting us how tired we were so we decided to call it quits and head back towards Andover. We stopped at one of the harvester pubs to try a meal there since my aunty couldn't believe I hadn't been there given my love for salad. However when we went in there was a sign saying they couldn't cook food today because something had broken in the kitchen (ehh, a restaurant that can't provide meals?). We then drove to another which also had a similar sign. However this time the woman said it would still be fine as the problem wasn't that severe. Ok? So we sat down and ordered. I had a delicious veggie burger :') and Matt got ribs.

The next day Matt and I got up early to head off to London again for some sightseeing. We had a list of places we wanted to see and we had about 9 hours to see them! We did very well I reckon! We barely stopped walking all day except for a quick subway to boost our energy levels up!! We started by walking around the London eye, Westminster, up to Buckingham palace, over to Hyde park (to see the Winter wonderland), then to bond street, to oxford street, to covent gardens, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, to the British museum to see some aweeeesome artefacts like the Rosetta Stone, back to oxford street, to tower bridge, to 10 Downing Street, then basically home. I'm sure there's more but that's what I can remember right now :) I do absolutely love London! I would put it amongst my top 3 European cities!

When we got back, we were picked up from the train station and treated with pizzas for dinner :') I looove pizza so much it's beautiful.

The next morning I woke up early because of a bad dream. It was dark and only about 6.30am so I decided to just play on my phone for a bit. I put on Facebook and received horrible news from my mum. A close family friend had died in a car crash. It hit me really hard and suddenly I was violently crying, which woke up Matt. It was really strange for me to understand because I've never really dealt with death before. My grandad and great grandad died when I was young, but of course I couldn't really understand it. So this was the first time I was really facing the death of someone I cared about. And it's a really strange thing. Ok so he was a family friend, and therefore I wasn't that close with him like I would be with one of my best high school friends etc. But it's still absolutely tragic, and leaves a hole that no one else could ever fill in. It made me realise that every person in my life is important to me in a different way, and each has a totally unique personality. It also reinforced the importance of communication and catching up with people.

So... That's basically our time in the U.K. There was definitely a lot to think about and a lot for me to mentally process. I had been nervous about coming because I feel like I've integrated in to NZ so much, I didn't know how I would cope emotionally going back! But it was very pleasant. It was good to catch up with old friends. Even better was seeing my absolutely amazing family, who I wish I could just steal and transport to New Zealand. Being apart from them is the only thing that sucks about living so far away. But also visiting England also reinforced how happy and lucky I am to be in New Zealand - how much more I have been able to achieve in terms of opportunity, the amazing lifestyle, the beautiful scenery and by far the nicest people in the world.

I really want to emphasise how grateful I am to my family for how much they spoiled us during our time there - everything from driving us around to providing us with delicious meals to buying me beautiful Christmas presents. I would never have expected it because I didn't want you to be under stress from us coming, but I am so grateful because we had an absolutely amazing time! I promise I will come back and visit you again, and hopefully this time it won't take so long!