We drove to Dunedin right across to the East coast of the South Island and hoped that we might get some sun. On the first day it rained again, all day!! Boooo. But the second day, although it was still cold, we didn't have to come out in full waterproof force so things were looking up.

We went to Lanarch castle in the morning, which was built by the Lanarch family in the 1800's. Some of the rooms were a bit creepy and had a really eerie feeling but the house was beautiful. The gardens surrounding the house were even more stunning and after a nice round of tea and cakes we took a stroll round them.

We drove to the Albatros breeding ground next but they were trying to charge us $80 to watch birds fly naturally around their habitat, so we decided against it. In the evening we got ourselves fish and chips from the local shop, which we hadn't had for months and months. Then I got to speak to Hayles, who had arrived that morning. Was really great to have a nice long chat without having to worry too much about the cost of the call.

We decided to do a long drive up past Christchurch after Dunedin, as there wasn't an awful lot else along the way and we had booked in to get new tattoos in Christchurch the following week. On the way, we stopped at a cheese factory and bought two amazing blue cheeses and a vintage port. We drove to a place called Akaroa, after stopping along the way to get a bottle of Merlot, which is like a little French town in a peninsula an hour out of Christchurch.

We settled in the van for the evening to enjoy our wine and cheese. The cheese was stunning, the wine was....a total dissapointment! It tasted like ribena mixed with vodka, with a hint of something I can't even descrive and to be fair it would have to be pretty bad for us not to finish it! We forced each sip down, thinking 'was it really as bad as I remember the last bit being!?" but yes it was and in the end the rest went down the sink! Note to self, Akaroa is not a good Merlot region! Gak...