We have finally arrived in New Zealand. The flight from London to Sydney was unique in our experience in as much as we had in excess of 17 hours of significant turbulence. It was bad enough most of the time for us to part company with the seat on a regular basis only to be reunited with it a few seconds later. The poor captain had to keep finding 5/10 minutes to switch the seat belt signs off and allow people to get to the loo! The flight from Sydney to Auckland wasn't much better. Emma, it's not normally like that, honestly!

Anyway, we checked into our Auckland airport hotel late afternoon yesterday and Paul realised he'd left his favourite hat in the overhead locker of the Qantas flight. This time last year we managed to lose our camera and Paul's glasses (and a pile of other stuff) on our first day of a trip to Patagonia. When he dropped us at Heathrow on Thursday, Matt asked us if we had spare glasses and told us to keep an eye on our belongings! We have a book at home which the girls love called I Want My Hat Back and it seemed as if we had stepped into it :)) This morning we managed to find the lost property office and were told that any items of clothing found on the planes were detroyed for 'hygiene' reasons???? Then, out of the back office, came a young chap holding Paul's hat! 'Is this it?' he asked. Brilliant.

We flew over to Great Barrier Island in a small plane and landed on a grass air strip. This island is off grid and a designated dark sky location. It is so beautiful. Tonight we are off star gazing if the clouds keep away. Fingers crossed.