With a bus ride from Paris to the English Channel, then a ferry across to the white cliffs of Dover, we finished with the final bus leg to London - and the Contiki was done! We said our goodbyes, and waited for one Daniel Harden.
Harden is one of my very good friends from Wellington, and I was looking forward to catching up with him! Anyway, he rocks up gangster black Merc and his uggboots - Zoolander styles, crack up! We quickly head back to his, for a quick shower and head off to a local English pub for some tappas and we get cracking into some wines! We share stories - of his not so good NZ xmas/nys experience and of our last few months around the world.
The story of the engagement comes up and we are soon ordering bottles of champagne! Harden very kindly looks after us, and after an entertaining night and a visit to the dairy (to buy more drinks) we head home. Celebration drinks go well into the night - Harden has work early the next morning, but still backs up - legend! We have early taxis, trains and flights to Istanbul to worry about...but the company and laughs are just too good! Anyway, we polish off all the champagne and bottles of Harden's Craggy Range NZ Pinots - and we're done! Highlights Dan talking about his Mexican guns he brought and how he got ripped off - story telling in another one of his traits. To end the night, we gift Harden a dark tangiwai pounamu toki (pendant) to say thank you manaaki, kia kaha and keep being the man in London!
After a horrible night's sleep (worrying about missing all the transport of the day), we finally check-in at Gatwick Airport. YES! We then nail some good kai at Jamie Oliver's cafe at the airport - and we're winning again! In our minds, we're start making our way back to NZ - just via Turkey, Bahrain, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Thank you heaps Harden for the aroha brother - never forget it! We'll see you in Dec at the wedding partner!
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