Arriving in Dunedin fairly late on Thursday night, we drove around the town centre to find the Speight's Ale House next to the Speight's brewery, where we'd agreed to meet Makouri.

We found a seat in front of the large gas fire in the brewery-themed bar and didn't have long to wait until Makouri turned up. The three of us sat chatting for a while before ordering some food which turned up ridiculously quickly and was also far better than its quick cooking time had us believe. Makouri and I had some venison whilst Lucy opted for the biggest plate of bangers and mash I had ever seen.

After our food, we followed Makouri back to his house a short drive from Dunedin. He took us a 'scenic route' which involved driving up some of the steepest and most winding roads we had ever encountered in a town, over two huge hills, but gave us amazing views of Dunedin lit up far below us.

Eventually we arrived at Makouri's and left the van parked at the bottom of his drive, hopping in his 4x4 for the ascent to his house up the most mental driveway I have ever seen. A rutted track, climbing at what felt like a 45 degree angle straight up the hill with only a couple of sharp corners, it was clear Makouri had driven it quite a few times by the skill he ascended it with.

After arriving at Makouri's cool house built on the hillside with the bay far below, we relaxed with some wine, chatted and watched a movie before eventually calling it a night. Lucy and I climbed up the ladder to our own little mezzanine sleeping area above the big hexagonal living space and enjoyed a really comfy sleep.

The next morning Makouri had to get up early for some appointments so Lucy and I had a lazy morning around his house, drinking tea and reading before the three of us headed out in the afternoon to see some local beaches.

With the three of us crammed in the front of Happy Diwali, Makouri directed us out the winding coastal roads and down a steep track to the quirkily named Murdering Beach, an idyllic sandy cove which we had pretty much to ourselves. Enjoying the bright sunshine and amazing coastal scenery, with hilly green farmland all around and distant hazy headlands jutting into the sea further up the coast, we spent a while at the beach wandering around looking for shells and eating sandwiches we made with stuff bought on our way out of town.

Then it was time to engage the low gear and power the van up the steep track back to the road. On our way back along the track we encountered the biggest flock of sheep we had ever seen (about 2000 sheep according to the farmer) heading the same way as us, and had to nudge our way slowly through the flock with the sheep bouncing along in front of us and jumping out the way. It was a lot of fun.

With the sun getting lower in the sky we had time to head for one more beach so again Makouri directed us, this time to Purakaunui, or the Estuary of Broken Bones, the old site of a Maori village on the headlands where, to escape enslavement and worse, the villagers jumped from the cliffs to their death during an attack from a rival tribe.

We got to the beaches below the site of the village down another dirt track, having to stop halfway along and walk due to the track turning into a bog ahead of us.

The two beaches, one with grassy dunes behind it and one with tall cliffs and amazing views to the headlands to the north, were beautiful. We climbed around on the rocks on the headland then found some seats on the sand and watched the sun make its way lazily towards the horizon, before heading back to the van and driving back to Makouri's.

We chilled out at Makouri's for a while, listening to music, Makouri and I enjoying some Glenmorangie as Lucy had kindly opted to drive for the evening. Makouri whipped up some ace Tuna sashimi and we moved from the whisky onto the potent but odd-smelling Bounty rum I had bought in Fiji.

After a couple of drinks we hopped in the van and drove into town, stopping for food at a Thai restaurant just before it closed, then cruising the streets to find a bar to go to.

It was whilst we were driving around looking for a bar that the worst experience so far of the trip occured, one which certainly took the shine off New Zealand and gave us a first-hand experience of the underhand money-grabbing which is going on to try and battle the country's rising debt.

Lucy had stopped the van at a red light, and after the light turned green and we carried on down the main street, the car behind us suddenly lit up blue and red and we heard the wail of its siren. Realising it was an undercover police car, Lucy pulled over and we waited, wondering what on earth we'd been pulled over.

We though that since there were 3 of us squeezed in the front of a bright pink 'Happy Diwali' van driving around on a Friday night that they'd pulled us over to breathalise the driver, but were flabbergasted when the cop came up to the window and asked why we'd gone through a red light.

None of us knew what to make of it as he claimed we had driven through the light we were stopped at. We tried arguing with him, asking him to point out the light and explain exactly what happened but he was having none of it and, after returning to his car with Lucy's driver's license, returned and served us with a $150 ticket.

We were absolutely enraged, not to mention confused at what he thought we had done, but were powerless to do anything about the ticket. As we sat talking through what had happened, the night only got stranger as two cars ploughed into each other at the junction right behind us, one of them going through a red (or was that green?) light.

We had heard that the local authority were trying to rake in money from anywhere possible to pay for an ugly stadium which had gone well over budget but hadn't expected police to blatantly lie and ticket us.

Hacked off, we circled round the streets to watch the sequence of lights at the offending junction and, convinced that we'd been in the right and the police officer was a lying little toad, we parked up and headed to a bar for a drink.

However, our spirits were lowered somewhat by our experience so we only had one before deciding to call it a night. Lucy drove us back to Makouri's, making extra sure every traffic light was actually at green, and she went to bed whilst Makouri and I stayed up into the wee hours talking about all sorts and making a larger dent in the bottle of Bounty rum.

After another comfortable sleep and a long lie, we got up on Saturday morning and had a late lazy breakfast before heading out to one more beach, at the gorgeous Aramoana. We walked along the sand under huge cliffs with big rocky outcrops dotted along the beach, enjoying yet another sunny if chilly day, and found a seat halfway up a rocky face to sit and watch the surf.

We chilled out for a while on the beach before heading back, Makouri and I climbing round the rocks trying to beat the incoming tide whilst Lucy took the sensible path up behind the beach, and on our way saw a very strange thing on the beach. Just a couple of days before Lucy and I had been looking at a National Geographic and had seen a picture of an Elephant Fish, one of the weirdest looking fish we had ever seen, and here we nearly stumbled over one lying dead on the sand.

Makouri, a keen surfer and diver, had never seen one of the odd creatures before and I thought it was quite a coincidence to see one so soon after reading about it in a magazine, none of us having heard of them before.

From the beach, we drove back to Makouri's where we thanked him and said our goodbyes as he had some business to take care of before leaving for Fiji the following day. We then packed up the van and set off on our own to explore a bit.

With the afternoon already well underway, we headed through the town centre of Dunedin only stopping to pick up a Subway for lunch, before making our way out the Otago Peninsula.

We took the highcliff road out this small peninsula alongside Dunedin, which gave us incredible views over the bays, cliffs and beaches of the beautiful coastline in the area. The peninsula was a hilly, lush and green and we enjoyed the road as we wound our way out its tip. Here, we arrived at an albatross colony and after watching the cliffs at the peninsula's end for some time, only managed to see a couple of potential albatrosses, but plenty of other nesting seabirds on the cliffs.

With the sun setting we drove back in the peninsula and turned north, driving up the coast as it got dark to eventually arrive in Oamaru in the evening. With it already dark, we found our way to a holiday park and settled down for the evening, keeping warm as it was a bitterly cold night with thick frost on the ground.

On Sunday morning we got up and decided to explore a little bit of Oamaru before carrying on our way. We headed to the historic precinct down at the waterfront which is populated by Victorian era limestone warehouses and other buildings, many housing Victorian-themed businesses.

I was immediately drawn to the Oamaru Cycle Works not only by its name but by the numerous penny farthings parked outside. I had a look in the shop which was full of old bikes and replicas of old bikes.

Watching a guy with the shop owner on the waste ground across from the shop having a go at riding a penny farthing I decided I had to have a go, as I'd always wanted to try a penny farthing. After waiting my turn, I first got to try a scaled down version built from modern bicycle parts to get the hang of it, before mounting the massive old penny farthing with some help from the shop owner and setting off a little shakily around the lot. With the shop owner alongside to support me in case I toppled, I made a couple of circuits of the open lot then made a rather unglamorous dismount once again with the assistance of the shop owner.

I started to get the hang of riding the massive bike during my short escapade, but it was very strange with the same wheel driving the bike and steering it, not to mention the scale and very top-heavy design. I think another few rides and I would get the hang of it, but I can't help feeling that wearing a top hat would enhance the whole experience.

After riding the penny farthing, we wandered around the period shops in the historic district, eventually finding our way to the upper level of one of the warehouses where there were a number of small art galleries as well as a steampunk exhibition. I had heard there was a thriving steampunk scene in Oamaru and had been keen to find it, but until a big town-wide exhibition starting in November the small display of clothes, mock ray-guns and other assorted devices and imaginings was all that was to be seen.

For those not familiar, steampunk is a design style and genre of science fiction which combines victorian-era themes with modern ideas, with fantastical technology, often steam or clockwork powered which might be futuristic as imagined by 19th century minds. Fans of the genre often make their own costumes or mock up machines or gadgets for fun or for exhibitions, and Oamaru is the centre of this scene in New Zealand.

Outside the warehouses we found a full size steampunk train on our way back to the van along the waterfront, which was rather cool. After a quick drive around the rest of the seaside town of Oamaru we got back on the road and headed north out of town, bound for Lake Tekapo.