New Zealand Day 16:

Woke up around eight trying to make it to the omaka aviation museum by 9 am. Checked out, picked up subway for brekke and lunch and headed to the museum. 60usa$ for us both to see their WWI and WWII exhibits. The replicas and the dioramas looked life like with mannequins. There were about a dozen ww1 planes and heaps of memorabilia. Matt was stoked. After about 45 minutes we went around to the WWII hanger and they too had impressive collections. Had a spitfire and a German scream plane... I forget the name. It they had a three d video of what it would have been like at Stalingrad. Pretty intense. Then about 1045 we were done and packing up for our five hour drive to Christ church along the road that was washed out by the earthquake and is undergoing massive repairs and is only open daylight time. We had to have the car back by tomorrow at 9am... but are trying a 630am flight to Sydney and after hours drop off is an extra 40$ so trying to get the car back by 530. There is an emirates flight to Sydney at 645pm but it's red. Worth a shot.

We drive along the coast. Hit the part of the road that was washed away and meandered through the stop and go of one lane traffic all while the seals were splashing off in the harbor. About 3.5 hours in we realized we were going to be 2 hours earlier than we wanted, so stopped at a vineyard for tasting and a pint. Enjoyed the last of our New Zealand sun on the patio with a rosè and a pilsner.

Arrived to car rental return a little before 4. Had to wait for the one person to have time to mark our car off. Despite bending the hubcap we were good to go and dropped off at the airport awaiting our emirates flight to Sydney. No such luck. There were two seats open but they had to go to the emirates non revs. Luckily the plan was to get a room at the jucy snooze 10minutes walk away so we could walk to the airport in the morning. Got picked up by the shuttle and checked into our room. Picked up some chicken curry and fried noodles from a nearby restaurant and enjoyed that and a couple pints in the "hangout" room of the hotel / hostel. Big open areas with full equipped kitchen and bean bags and picnic tables and all the electrical outlets one could need. Anyway, quick to bed. 4am wake up to try and catch our 630 flight to Sydney.