After three days in Wellington it is time to head north. Lesley has completed her New Zealand Orientation course which includes tips on driving.....'when traffic lights are at red you must stop'.....well I suppose if you were visiting from a country without traffic lights you might wonder what a red light means. A roundabout is ' a central island in the middle of an intersection'. The advice is not lost on Greg, a young American GP from New York not far on from the outset of his chosen career as a GP. 'Can't get used to them, what do you call them? We call them circles, and there ain't too many of these in New York'. We've also been told that the police here are armed....with speed guns and there are lots of hidden cameras. A few Brits we've spoken to back home have been paying more attention to the scenery than the speedo and have clocked up tickets, the winner got three in three weeks.

With this sound advice ringing in our ears we hire a car for our journey to Gisborne. We have chosen a cheap 'banger', the odometer of which has proudly clocked up 114,500 km. "Regularly serviced", assures the APEX rep, "but it has a few scratches. Do you wish extra insurance, the damage waiver?" I look at the little dents and imperfections, and decide to gamble that I won't have a reason to call upon $ 2,000 as the damage excess.

George Watt is a Scot who emigrated to New Zealand in 1974. While not perhaps his first choice, his wife was keen to move as most of her family had decided to seek another life and so the Watts took up residence in Featherstone. A lifelong lover of railways, George now is the part time curator at the Rimutaka Railway Museum. We are the only visitors today, and, after a brief exchange of views about the recent referendum, George enthuses about the love of his life. When I ask him how his wife puts up with a man who has more time for railways than her, he has a ready answer "It's simple", he says looking me straight in the eye, "I have my railways and the wife collects stamps, so we're happy and there's no bad feeling".

This time in New Zealand we're keen to see as much as possible, not like the mad three week rush around both islands 30 years ago. So we are in the exploring mood, and keen make time to divert to points of interest (that's Roy's excuse for the railway museum anyway).

Our bed for the next two nights is with Kirsty and Brian Livesay, They've confirmed their address by text as '3927 Taihape Road'. Brian has told us they are easy to find, even in the dark, despite being a long way up a country road in the middle of nowhere. "From the Taihape road turn off, drive 39.27 km and you are at the house, you can't miss it." We add 39.27 to our odometer, drive a very twisty road in a very dark night, and indeed at the appointed distance we arrive at 'Te Rangai' farmstead.