We left early this morning and somehow forgot(!) to go to the cafe to pay our camping fee, so we had a night's free camping! Our first stop was the New Zealand Rugby Museum in Palmerston North, where we learned about the history of rugby and saw some All Blacks memorabilia. After that we grabbed lunch in subway then headed for the Tui brewery for our tour.

For the next few days we were going to be staying with Dave's Grandmas's sister Mary, who has lived in NZ for a long time. Before we set off for the brewery we had a text from Mary letting us know they were having a roast dinner at 7pm and asking if we'd be there in time to join them - yes please! The thought of the roast dinner kept us going on the drive to the brewery! When we got there we paid our $18 each and were given our Tui 'passports' which included 3 free beers and a beer glass to take home, along with the tour - excellent value! We drank one of our free beers before the tour then were given our flurescent jackets and shown an introductory DVD. Then our guide showed us around the outside, including the old tower and the new Tuiversity and conference centre. Inside, she showed us how the beer is made and the machines used. We went to see some old delivery vehicles, and the bottling plant where old bottles are washed, filled and re-labelled. Unfortunately, this only happens on a Friday, but we did see a DVD of what happens.

After the tour we drank another of our free beers, then put our third drinks into a bottle for later! After collecting our free glasses, we left and headed to Upper Hutt and the Thompson family!

We arrived at Thompson Horse Centre at around 5pm and met Mary, who showed us around and kindly gave us a room in her house to sleep in - including an electric blanket! A bit later on, the rest of the family arrived - Mary's son Richard, with his wife Jacqui (who run the horse centre with Mary) and son Scott, and Mary's daughter Fiona with her daughter Chelsea and partner Phil. Just as we were getting to know each other there was a power cut so we had to get torches and candles out! Mary wasn't finished cooking dinner yet so we went out to our van and brought in our gas bottle and stove - backpackers to the rescue! The power came back on after about half an hour so we were able to eat the delicious roast dinner with the lights on!

We spent the rest of the evening chatting to everyone and after they'd gone, stayed up until midnight talking to Mary and hearing lots of stories about her life. We eventually headed to bed and sank into our warm bed with the electric blanket - heaven!!