15/4/09 Dropoff time for the car was 10am, so we were up by 6 and left before 7. The roads were very bendy for quite a while through the mountains, with lots of curves - some quite sharp - one straight after the other. The scenery was mostly stunning, though Dave couldn't really get a look at it due to having to be so careful driving.
Instead of going back to Surf 'n' Snow Backpackers, we paid for our last three nights in NZ at the Nomads Fusion hostel nearby. We fancied a change, there's more space and facilities for the same price, and they give you a free evening meal (very small, but still). I still went back to Surf 'n' Snow to see if my post from the Parliamentary Archives had arrived, but it hadn't. We didn't do much for the rest of the day apart from catching up on emails and reading.

16/4/09 Dave's night didn't go well because of one guy snoring spectacularly loudly, and in a very peculiar way. We've literally never, ever heard anything like it! I stayed up late in another room reading, but when I came into our dorm at midnight and heard all the noise, I was astounded that anybody else was asleep at all. I 'accidentally' shook his bed before quickly jumping into mine opposite, to see if he'd turn over in his sleep and stop snoring; I looked down from my bed when I'd got into it, and saw him sit up, swing his legs over the side and stay there for a while before walkiing out, but the odd thing was, he was still snoring throughout! I think he must have been a sleepwalker. In the morning we got chatting, and it turned out that he was from Mumbles originally and that his sister had been at Swansea Uni for 7 years. Bit of a small world.
A lot of jobs to do today - catching up with the blog and downloading our photos from Auckland, Raglan, New Plymouth & the Coromandel Peninsula, doing a bit of internet banking, pondering about the best sort of batteries for my camera, etc. We had a Korean pancake each for part of lunch; I had a cheese one for the first time, and it was so lovely, I think I might experiment with cheese pancakes when I get home. The cheese wasn't mixed into the batter mixture, it was a melted filling. Dave had a beef & cheese one, also delicious.
As we walked to the library, where we get free internet, we passed a road accident in the main street. A man was slumped on the road having his head supported by another guy, a car stood next to him with a massive dent in the side, and two policemen were talking to the people who'd been involved. It had evidently happened such a short time ago that the ambulance hadn't arrived yet.

17/4/09 Today we haven't done much so far apart from emails, internet etc. We're about to go out and buy the batteries we decided on, and another couple of Korean pancakes might possibly find their way into our hands... also I need to write a letter to the Australian bank to ask them to close down my now redundant account there, and tonight we need to pack for tomorrow, when we set off for South America. I simply can't wait!