We started with a visit out to the Model Boat Dockyard in Onehunga, where Bevan purchased the kit for a scale model of The Endeavour's longboat. Apparently this is a much, much more appropriate entry point to the hobby than the Endeavour itself that I bought for his birthday. He was also able to pick up some rather necessary tools, which I had failed to buy for his birthday.
While Bevan was there, Eleanor and I headed back to a playground we'd spotted, and I got a handy iPhone-based sourced hint from one of the other parents for a yum cha restaurant, Pearl Garden, where we ended up for a fantastic lunch. It overlooked the fish market, and with the humidity that day it both smelled and felt authentically Chinese. Since it was right in the heart of where we'd been shopping the previous day we were able to double back to a couple of stores and pick up a few extra toys to keep Eleanor happy on the plane. And guess who so utterly charmed the toy shop owner that he just gave her a bath toy as an extra freebie?
Our last planned stop before the airport turned out to be very conveniently located right next to it. Butterfly Creek is a butterfly house slash reptile zoo slash petting farm slash playground slash cafe. Eleanor was so enraptured with the trampoline that she ignored her last fluffy opportunity. She got to feed another lamb and take a tractor ride, along with lots of other animals to wave to. Have you ever wondered about the saying "Happy as a pig in mud"?
The butterfly house was huge and well stocked, which is why it's even more inexplicable that a five year old chose to poke the one butterfly sitting on a hibiscus that I was attempting to photograph. Bevan congratulated me on my tactical application of the death stare on a child who I couldn't yell at or throttle because the parents, while clearly negligent in their supervisory obligations, would probably have chosen to look up just at that point. And yes, watch this space in three years from now when somebody else is probably saying the same about Eleanor.
I ignored the spiders, but did admire their display of cockroaches in an absolutely filthy dolls house. Very nice touch. They also had a surprisingly large number of young American Alligators. I'm not sure what they plan on doing with them all once they grow to their full 4.5m adult length, although that's probably quite a few handbags so maybe they've got it figured. They were in glass enclosures about 1m off the ground, with a step up for the littlies. Eleanor obviously didn't realise that the place where she was clambering up for a look lined up perfectly with a baby 'gator looking straight out at us, but she got a huge shock when they came eye-to-eye. Of all the times for me to NOT accidentally hit the movie record button on the camera. D'oh!Finally it was time to say goodbye to our "big car" as Eleanor has called it. We checked in with plenty of time to kill, but the airport has a nostalgically old-fashioned observation deck where we could all relax for a bit. While there one of the NZ airforce planes was on the tarmac, and another came in to land and taxied around behind it. I suspect my photo therefore depicts the entire New Zealand air force in a single frame, but I'll refrain from posting it in case that's some sort of terrorist act.
Eleanor got to burn off some more steam in the McDonald's playground (found without the help of any of the airport information staff, all of whom gave conflicting advice about the existence of such a facility), before some last minute shopping - including a Lego kiwi t-shirt for Eleanor - and we were on the plane home.
It's been a wonderful trip, and we highly recommend New Zealand as a holiday destination for families. Next time we travel we'll definitely go the self-contained option, as not buying breakfasts or using laundromats saved precious amounts of money and time. I'm sorry that we didn't get to see more of the South Island, but that gives us an excuse to go back.
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