Goodbye, New Zealand!

So I thought I had another South Island post in me, but I really don't. After Queenstown we drove to Christchurch, which is a pretty long way to drive in a day, though there was some really nice scenery. Then the next morning we went on to Kaikoura, known for its whale watching-- unfortunately, there were no whales about so I didn't do much there, and the next day it was back to Picton to get the ferry back to Wellington.
And now I'm leaving Wellington (finally)! I fly tomorrow to Sydney where I have 2 1/2 days to pack up all the stuff I left there (and hopefully look around the city one more time), and then a few days in San Francisco, and then I'm back home on May 6th. In total I'll have been out of America for 237 days, or almost 8 months. I think that's pretty good going.
I've spent the last few days trying to do all the "Kiwi" things I can think of (and of course eating all the Kiwi food I love). The food included classic Kiwi dip, which is just a packet of dried onion soup mixed with reduced cream, with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar added. It's a bit weird, but suprisingly good. I've also been enjoying Tim Tam slams, for which you use a Tim Tam (delicious chocolate biscuit) as a straw to drink hot chocolate. Yum.
Yesterday I finally went to the zoo so that I could finally see a real Kiwi! (The animal this time, not the people.) They were every bit as adorable as I expected... here's a (slightly blurry/dark) picture. Kiwis are nocturnal so we couldn't use flash.
The kiwi is the little blurry thing eating out of the keeper's hand, in case you can't tell. This kiwi actually lost one of its legs-- watching it hop around on only one leg is very amusing!
Though this isn't really New Zealand-related, the second best part of the zoo were the giraffes. We happened to wander by them right as it was feeding time, so got to help feed them, which was pretty cool.
Oh, and I also was finally made to try a butter chicken pie. Though good, it basically felt like eating a heart attack. I was thankful to go to the gym afterwards.

Today we had lunch at my favourite Wellington cafe (Fidel's on Cuba st), and now I'm just finishing up packing! I'll be sorry to say goodbye to Wellington and New Zealand and general, but I'm looking forward to the next few days, and espeically to finally being home again.
Hopefully I'll see you soon!