Today is camper hand back day, so we lay in and even then both woke with a bad head. We packed the suitcases, why does there seem to be more stuff when you leave then when you arrive and we had made a point of not collecting anymore stuff too.

We did a bit of washing, cleaned the camper and set off at about 10:30 we fueled up and then stopped at a post office to post home our NZ maps and guide books etc to save a bit of weight. We went in search of the Antarctic centre which is near the airport and while looking we found our Hotel which was right next door! So we decided to go there after we had checked in to the Hotel but it meant we had a few hours to kill.

We drove to the Christchurch Gondolas on the other side of the city, but decided not to do them as they were $22 and we had done a very similar trip in Rotorua and this one didn't have the Luge ride.

We headed back to the Hotel and checked in at about 1pm transferred the bags from the camper refueled it again (they must be full when you return them) and took the camper back.

The camper return centre was just a short drive away and we did the deed. The camper experience has been a good one and we would definitely repeat and may even give it a go in the UK. I wouldn't hire from the same company again though as the camper we ended up with was a lot older than expected and lacked any syncros on the first 3 gears making down changing while going up a hill rather tricky. As said before it meant that I had to do all of the driving on this trip, some of the other camper companies do Automatic vans.

We got the courtesy bus back to the Sudima Hotel and relaxed a bit. We then went to the Antarctic Centre. Christchurch is the main centre for Antarctic travel, the USA have a large base at the airport specifically for traveling to their Antarctic bases.

The Antarctic centre is an information base that goes into detail on life there and the climate, wildlife and weather etc. They have a colony of little blue penguins that you can watch being fed at intervals. They also have a cool room that they run at about minus 8 and at intervals a simulated Antarctic storm blows through. I was wearing shorts but braved the cold and experienced a storm, it was pretty impressive and I really wasn't that cold. In a childish moment (I get those a lot) while in the cool room I made the mistake of sliding down the ice slide and as a result banged my tail bone very hard and It's pretty painful (I actually suffered for weeks with that).

Then back to the Hotel, the Sudima hotel is really quite nice for an airport hotel it has a pool, bar, 2 restaurants and the rooms are very clean and well appointed (no wireless internet though). The internet reviews of this place didn't do it justice, but it has been extensively renovated lately.

We had a meal in the hotel, Jackie had bangers & mash & I had steak and mash, it was very nice. Then an early night as we have to catch the 7 am flight to Sydney.