A surprisingly un-grumpy morning was made significantly better by an excellent nights sleep, not hitting my head on the ceiling of the bedroom and finding my missing sock in the laundry. The morning news updated us on all the issues which mattered to New Zealanders, primarily rugby, cricket, the failure of Australian politics, the Volvo Ocean race and concerns over fruit flies at a local vegetable growing contest before a cursory mention of a double homicide in W...

Bob's 26th birthday dawned spectacularly and with my sunburn glowing we set off to run around the treaty grounds at Waitangi, up onto the golf course where the view of the bay allowed Bob to choose which cruise liner she would soon be joining as she was now over half way to her Saga membership. Eager to boost my man points I assembled the rather confusing wheel changing apparatus and spent a lovely 20 minutes swearing at the spare wheel until it eventually came ...