A midnight toilet stop showed clear skies and beautiful stars, but didn't stay up to watch them as sleep was more pressing.

There was no alarm clock so we were advised to leave our room lights on as a wake up call. The generator switched them on around 6.15am. We were quick to get ready since it was a bit of a chilly start.

We went to the lounge where the sandwich making stations were busy busy. We were encouraged to make substantial sandwiches in advance of our long day ahead. Breakfast was hearty, with choices of porridge, cereals, cooked breakfast and toast.

We set off, covered in sunscreen, insect repellant and wearing gaiters - ready for any weather eventuality. Our packs were tightened around our waist to give us a "Milford muffin". The walks were spectacular, through amazing forest, past some small waterfalls and over crystal clear rivers. Lots of photos taken. The lunch stop was by a river where we could easily see a massive trout hiding too!

After lunch there was a side track which took us through some wetlands with carnivorous honeydew plants and stunted beech trees, and more beautiful scenery -in total around 7 hours' walking- before arriving at Pampolona lodge, where we were greeted by Ross, shown to our bunk room on the penthouse level (again it was just us two) and a nice warm shower.

Did some laundry and got to try out a mangle before putting our clothes in the drying room, then went for a few drinks before dinner (ginger chicken) and the next day's briefing, with Sam introducing his soon-to-be-famous Rock Wren dance. Following dinner we had some nice piano playing from John followed by a lengthy pianola recital from Sam, which was impressive mainly because of the amount of stamina required. Then early bed, hearing what we thought were kiwis in the night - we could have been mistaken, of course.