NZ Holiday - Leaving the South Island - Christchurch to Melbourne via Auckland

Useful links - http://takeanzholiday.blogspot.co.uk/

 Our Tour of the South Island
Our route around the South
Leaving the Mainland  
No props but still an All Black
After four and a half weeks in NZ it was time to say goodbye. It was also time to say adios to our second little Yaris and hand it back to Budget. It had taken us on a long climb over Temuka Hill to Golden Bay, kept us warm as we headed up to the Nelson Lakes; kept us dry on pancake day; took us over the Haast Pass and into Otago; it sheltered us from the gales in Balclutha.
The farewell was brief. The man from Budget took the mileage and the key. "Good on yer Mate" he said. Is that it done we asked? "Yeah, yeah good on yer Mate". "Could we have a receipt" we asked. "Nobody asks for one these days, good on yer Mate". We walked away, but TW looked back. The Yaris emergency warning 'flashers' were on! Was it trying to tell us something? TW ran to the Budget man to tell him. "No worries, good on ya". We did not look back again.

We checked in our bags and boarded a smart A320 decked out in an All Black strip and headed North to Auckland where we would change planes. It was a cloudless day and NZ spread out below us. We only seemed to see places we did not get a chance to visit like Kaikoura, Blenheim and the Marlbourgh Sounds. We were a bit sad.
Out to the All Black wing
At Auckland we walked the Green Mile, a painted green line from the Domestic to the International Terminal and the flight to Melbourne. The condemned couple ate a hearty meal. Not really, we had a disgusting McDonalds and headed for our plane. Why haven't you filled out a departure card? The lady lurking in departures was rather stern we thought but we turned around, found cards and completed them. We passed the dragon at the second attempt and headed for the flight. Now a bit late and rushing we wondered why nobody had given us forms before but, hey-ho.
The flight across the Tasman was good and uneventful. We sat next to an Aussie Lady who told us everything in Victoria was 'to die for'. Not literally, we hoped. The food and wine in Melbourne are to die for for, it seemed, along with just about every beach or cove or bay. Things, however, took a strange turn as we disembarked. There was a long white tape on the carpet. Would we have to walk the line? Surely Australia is not doing sobriety checks for incoming passengers? They used to come on the plane and spray us with DDT when we landed but this was a new phenomenon.
Everyone was told to put their bags against the wall and then line up on the white line facing the wall. Surely they are not going to shoot us! I only had a beer and a small bottle of Merlot on the plane and TW only had lemonade! Next, a rather playful dog was produced from a wee kennel. The hound was then led along the line of passengers and then the line of baggage. They record a lot of TV programmes at Airport these days. Was it a stunt or were we going to appear on 'Australia Got Talent'. Well, I don't know what the dog or the border patrol were up to but no contraband or dog food was found on any of us. This was despite the couple next to us jokingly saying we were looking suspicious and they must be looking for us. Anyway, things were going well until baggage arrival or non arrival! TW's baggage did not appear on the carousel. After seeing off 'waggy waggy' we thought we were home and dry. It took a day for the bag to be located and turn up in Melbourne and it put a damper on things initially. We had debated skipping the OZ leg of our trip and, at this point, we wished we had. Yaris 2 did warn us!
Location: Melbourne VIC, Australia

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