This small town of Milton is promoted as 'The Town of Opportunities'. It lives a bit in the shadow of its larger neighbour Dunedin up the road so I suppose if you can't make it there then you can try here. Having said that the average earnings are only $ 28,000 reflecting the socio-economic problems. Quite a few streets - and possibly the town - are named after poets but the interesting one is 'Moneymore'. There might also be the opportunity to save a bit on the price of a house. Lesser known reasons why you would want to stay here is the opportunity to experience the infamous 'Kink in the Road', a slight change in the otherwise dead straight State Highway 1. There is a scurrilous story that it is the result of two surveyors setting out the road one from the north and one from the south, each setting it out to their right. So when the road met, the north was offset by a road width from the south and vice versa. If the mistake had been in a railway tunnel it would have been sorted and nobody would have known any better. But railway tunnels were built to 3 centimetres, even in the early 20th century :-). Apparently NASA take the opportunity to calibrate their satellite imagery on the kink. They must have run out of names when they called the local eatery 'Kink In The Road'.

While we have been here, we have become aware of other opportunities. You can have the opportunity to look at HMP Milton (from the outside). You can drive about an hour to an interesting goldfield trail. Or perhaps down to the coast a few miles away. Maybe try a 'Subway', the only one for miles around. With three Chinese takeaways on the main street, you have the opportunity to buy a cheap sweet and sour for $6. This has not appealed after reading TripAdvisor reports that most of it is fat. We have taken the opportunity to visit a nearby disused railway tunnel (the second on our NZ trip) where glow-worms hang from the roof. As we are near to Dunedin we have taken the opportunity to see a bit more of that city, eat out in a Scottish themed restaurant and ride on the world famous Taieri Gorge Railway.

Lesley has hopes that she can go to a local Rotary meeting, but the meeting evening of Mondays unfortunately does not coincide with our time here. She does however make contact with Steve McLay, the Rotary Secretary, who owns and runs McLay Boats just out of town. A calm, diminutive man with a ready smile, he is gracious enough to invite us along for a factory tour and to meet Lesley and I. 'Expanding our premises into this new purpose built factory has given us the opportunity to expand. I'm not sure if the doctor's surgery who we used to be next to really appreciated us with all the noise we make!' He has a full order book for the next year. We are keen to tell him that we have just walked a local walk named McNally's Track to a viewpoint and that we noted Rotary maintained the track and painting the signposting as necessary.

Lesley has taken the opportunity to get to know New Zealander sheep shearers a bit better in the surgery. Maybe partly their character but more so the colour of their skin under a layer of hardened sheep excrement. There is always a story of two to tell at the end of her day. She has not been slow to take up the opportunity of leaving the surgery at 5.15 when the receptionist is about to lock up. Meeting other GPs who have not taken the opportunity to live in Milton (preferring to travel from Dunedin every day, about 45 minutes), has given her the chance to appreciate their interesting backgrounds. One GP, a Scotsman, used to work in Tunnocks Biscuit Factory in Uddingston, not as a doctor I hasten to add, but as a packer during student holidays. Anyone who has had the pleasure of eating a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer or Teacake will appreciate the Scots' ability to produce chocolate goodies.

Our second week here has given us the opportunity to pack two bags with belongings that we won't need on our onward travels from New Zealand. We'll be dropping these off with DHL at Christchurch Airport on Monday 23rd for delivery back to the UK. That means a lot more room in our hired campervan for the Christchurch to Auckland drive…..more of that to follow!