We seem to be making a bit of a habit of sleeping in recently and so last night set our alarm for 7.30. We’re all up and about by 8 and after breakfast, my new favourite -cinnamon porridge, we pack up our stuff. It’s so cold and when we realise Maisie is too small to ride the huge mountain bikes I welcome the opportunity to curl up in front of the fire with my Wilber Smith book.

The bikes are ten dollars each and they go for about an hour, mad fools! When they get back they’re so cold and have apparently fallen off about 8 times between them! They said the cycle paths were very steep and snowy and now have blue fingers and red noses to show for their bit of exercise, but loved every minute of it.

The day was spent driving back towards the east coast and then south to the coastal town of Dunedin. The south islands second largest city has some good museums and art galleries as well as Cadbury World and some wild penguins. Cadbury World sounds like the biggest draw to me. Although- the headline in the local paper discusses the 6th annual jaffa race where 20,000 jaffas are rolled down the world’s steepest hill. (Oh no! we missed it)

We arrive about 6pm and head for a backpackers recommended to us. When we get there it has closed down and we decide to try some of the many motels instead. They turn out to be really expensive and I begrudge paying 180 dollars for some crummy place. After trying at least 10 places we opt for two hotel rooms at a Mecure Hotel. Not cheap at 185 dollars but at least it’s a decent quality kip.

We have had an email recently from Sam and Dan, a couple we met way back in January in Malaysia. They are now back at work and gave us loads of tips on NZ. It was interesting to see that they thought overall Asia was the best place, despite cutting their Asia trip short to return to Australia. We talk about this and also agree that even though it’s so so beautiful here it isn’t the amazing adventure we have experienced elsewhere. We’ve heard this a bit from other travellers too but feel quite conscious that we don’t want to start yapping on about how much better it was when we were single handedly hacking our way through some mosquito infested jungle! Blah blah blah!

I have a lovely long and hot bath, looking decidedly scruffy and travellerish recently with dry skin, greasy hair and knackered nails. Simon made some cheeky remark which I won’t repeat to save my blushes- how rude! He’s just found the dedicated grass roots rugby channel -Oh give me strength!