Last day of the visit with the Californians

After packing up and waiting for Allie to be ready, we headed out of Hahei to start driving back to the Auckland airport. We took the route where you can stop along the side of the road and walk up a path to see a 2,500 year old square Kauri tree. It was quite cool. And the spot of our one group photo.
We then headed on to Thames for lunch. We were hoping that it would be a cute little town in which we could wander through some interesting shops - we were disappointed in seeing that it was not, but we did find a great playground where we had a picnic and the kids played for a bit before embarking on the last leg of our drive.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare (a first for some in our group). We hung out for a bit, and then said good-bye. We were psyched that Allie and Tom made the effort to come and visit us, to add to our list of memories from this year in New Zealand.