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So quietly have the last few days of my trip crept up on me I can hardly believe it. Close to three months have passed and I cannot begin to describe how truly amazing it has been. Picture perfect scenes and tiny life changing moments have adorned every single day from start to finish. Even now as I start to write this blog I'm sat on a bench high in the hilltops of Waiheke Island overlooking the ocean. The weather, hot enough for tshirt and shorts, but with a gentle breeze keeping it pleasurable to walk about in. Sunday and Monday I spent on two of the islands in the Hauraki gulf just 35 minutes boat ride from Auckland. Sunday, Rangitoto, a volcanic island that's shield cone emerged from the sea a mere 600 years ago - well within the historical memory of the local Maori Iwi tribes. Monday, Waiheke, a paradisical escape from the concrete jungle of Auckland CBD. Both island have conjured up childhood memories of the reading kind for me. For those two days I felt at differing times like a mesh of characters from Enid Blyton's Famous Five series or an inquisitive protagonist from a Daphne du Maurier novel. I can only imagine what exquisite words du Maurier might use to describe the views I bore witness to in Waiheke and what stories could manifest themselves before her in those hills. I guess being alone in the hills on a small island will do this to you! From those hills, a tiny church nestled high up also overlooking the sea caught my eye. I later chatted with an elderly man who informed me that it was in fact a Catholic Church which owned this, some of the finest real estate in all the gulf islands. Trust the Catholic Church ey! I suppose it has been quite fitting really that I should spend the last days of my trip feeling like a young adventurer. It has indeed been and adventure - an adventure to the other side of the world, an adventure into the realms of solo travel. An adventure which has (much to my mothers dismay I imagine!) only served to intensify my wanderlust. So as I sit here by the pier, on this my very last evening in the land of the long white cloud I can safely say I am content and happy. Happy to have had such a wonderful experience and happy to embrace everything that awaits me on my return.
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JP Safe jorney home, what a great adventure you've had! Tis true time goes quicker the older we get! See you on home turf sometime! xx