The comfort of the large single bed proved to be too much for me. Bob had the patience of a saint before I finally elected that the floor was a more socially acceptable location for my restless limbs.

A leisurely start was followed by a day trip to Arthur's Pass, passing the quake induced wiggle in the Telegraph road. We climbed into the foothills of the Southern Alps and another landscape appeared around us, a mountainous arid moonscape, punctuated by huge boulders seemingly dropped at random along the valley floor.

We pulled in at Castle Hill where a collection of limestone boulders sat like a chaotic fortress, shaped by the wind and weather they provided an entertainig hours walk amongst the climbers paradise in the blazing sunshine.

Back on the road, trees started to appear as we climbed into Arthur's Pass, watching huge snaking goods trains making the same winding journey through the spectacular gorge. We had left all our sandwich stuff at the house so we grabbed pie and fish and chips from 'The Wobbly Kea' and we ate them looking up at the enormity of the steep tree lined valley and the tall rocky summits which pierced the bright blue sky.

Very full we elected for a post prandial drive to let lunch go down before our token walk. We continued down the valley to the viewpoint overlooking the start of the road's descent to the sea and I was immediately reminded of the joys of the west coast with 2 sandfly bites. We retreated swiftly to the carpark and drove back into the pass where we parked up and set off, climbing through the gnarled beech forest towards the sounds of the 131m waterfall named 'The Devil's Punchbowl' hidden up the valley. Despite the gangnam styling Korean child bouncing around, the stretched spectacle of the tumbling waterfall were stunning and Bob went into a sort of a trance watching the spray. We hopped the barrier and scrambled right up to the plunge pool, getting soaked in the process before following Psy's protege back down the walkways to the car.

We returned to Lincoln the way we had come and reported our day trip's activities to Phil and Lorna. Bob cooked Thai green curry and we talked shop endlessly in between planning the weekends activities before the lure of the soft duvet became too much and Phil started snoring.