Before i came away i'd been given the contact details of family on my mums side that lived in New Zealand. I'd been in contact with one member before i arrived, and i'd hoped to meet up with a few of them whislt i was here. All afternoon i'd been trying to ring them as we were near where i knew a few of them lived. But i wasnt getting through...finally i realised why, but by this point it was late afternoon/early evening...

We started the day by driving along the Southern Scenic Tourist road - we'd picked up a leaflet at the campsite that said where to stop etc along the way - so we'd highlighted the places we thought would be good to see. Our first stop was to Nugget Point - it was down a unsealed road and very bumpy - lovely coastal views but we were a little disappointed when we didnt see any of the wildlife the leaflet had talked about. We carried on and stopped off at an old abandoned enterance to a tunnel - we got to about 20 foot infront of the enterance then got scared! It was very long and dark, with dripping noises...I walked up to the enterance and my touch didnt do anything to stop the darkness so i quickly made my way back to where Rach was standing...All the towns we had driven through were tiny, but we stopped at a 'bigger' one called Owaka for lunch. We definately didnt feel like we'd had a very successful day! And the weather wasnt holding out for us either!! We went to our final stop for the day - Purakanui Falls - it had begun to rain and our hopes werent high, be we went on the short walk - it was definately worth it! the falls were brilliant - really impressive! Finally something had gone right today. This is when i realised my mistake with phoning Les and Hazel (family) so we made our way back to the last phone box we'd seen and id used...it decided it wasnt going to work for me! I finally got one to work and phoned and they were really friendly! They invited us round to theres that evening! We drove straight to theirs - not far. When we arrived they were waiting with a lovely welcome, they made us comfortable and even cooked us tea :o) though they soon made me feel guilty with my lack of knowledge about my wider family (they knew way more than i did about family that live in Herefordshire!) Their daughter Sally and her family came over and also Hazel's brother Peter - was a really nice evening, and was great to meet and chat to them all!

We didn't initally have a plan as to staying with them, but as it was so nice to be there we decided to take them up on the offer of staying another night (was really nice to stay in a house! Though we do love Twiki our campervan). We got campervan envy though as Les and Hazel have a MASSIVE campervan - i tried to get them to do a swap...they refused!

The beds were so soft and comfy we didnt get up till 10am. It was a miserable day outside. Today i was going to get to meet my granddad Holleys sister - or The Queen as the family here called her! I was really looking forward to meeting her, she came over and we had a lovely lunch. The first thing i thought when i saw her was how much you could tell she was a Holley! I was really nice chatting to her about her childhood (i dont know much about my granddads so was good to find stuff out! It made me really want to get back and tell my Granddad that i'd met her, and hopefully get to talk to him about things! Though she also made me feel guilty about my family knowledge! In the afternoon Les took us out on his school bus run - we got to see the countryside around where they live - its so in the middle of no where! And there were alot of sheep and hills - i cant imagine being one of the children that grow up out there! And i thought i grew up in the country! When we arrived back to the house Hazel was cooking dinner - Sally and her family came over and we had a gorgeous roast! Rach and me loved that part (both being massive roast dinner fans and not having one for nearly 3 months!) Peter came over later - and brought us a present of thermal flasks from his cafe! Very sweet of him! He stayed and we chatted - i gave him a recipe for curry sauce as they dont have it with their fish and chips here and well thats just wrong! I was sad to say goodbye to The Queen, we'd had a really good day and i knew we couldnt stay any longer as our time in New Zealand is limited.