All I can say is "Wow, that was quick". I can't believe I'm already back here in London at my brother's place. It doesn't seem like too long ago that I was at his old flat and I had started this blog. That date was February 27 to be exact. And now, roughly 125 days later, I am back here almost ready to go home. Before I get there though, I've gotta have some fun here in the UK don't I?

 

And before I get to that, I suppose I should let you know about the end of my trip in NZ. I told you all about snowboarding on Canada Day which was an absolute blast and once I get onto a highspeed connection, I'll upload a bunch of pics from that glorious day. That night, it was a lot of fun because the gang all went out for some drinks at a couple local bars in Queenstown. I wore my Canada hat and a red and white t-shirt in honour of the day and there were actually several Canadians all around the place. After the fun evening, everyone stayed up because the England - Portugal quarterfinal World Cup match was on at like 3:00 in the morning. I stayed up as much as I could but I'm afraid I just couldn't make it past the 1st half so I went to bed and found out the result in the morning (In some ways, I'm kinda glad I was tired because seeing how pissed off English fans were after that game would have been kinda bad).

 

The next day, I left for Christchurch which was an aboslutely spectacular drive through mountains, over passes and beside enormous lakes. The snow was pretty much lightly dusted everywhere so it was really pretty - especially when the sun would shine through the clouds and sparkle on the finely dusted snow. Christchurch is quite a pretty city with a TONNE of gardens and green space all snaking around right through the city. I enjoyed my day there and did a lot of walking and breathing in the fresh air.

 

Why you ask? Well, I was getting ready for the grueling 24+ flights ahead of me. In total, there were 3: Christchurch to Auckland (1 hour but delayed by 1 hour). Auckland to Los Angeles (12 hours). Los Angeles to London (11 hours). And yeah, you did see that correctly - last Tuesday at around 6:00 pm, I flew right over Toronto and waved at a lot of you. Too bad I didn't get a chance to stop.

 

Overall, I had really good impressions of New Zealand primarily because of the scenery and most of the locals that I met. I found them to be very genuine and hospitable. The scenery absolutely speaks for itself. I don't think I've been on so many scenic modes of transport whether it was flights, bus rides or boat rides. And it was always tough for me because I wanted to capture everything on camera which wasn't always an easy task. There are parts of New Zealand that I missed so I have a reason to go back. Who knows - maybe some day I'll be back in the south.