Today was our road trip with Hamish, Lisa and Robyn. Everyone met at Margaret's at 9.30am and packed the picnic into Hamish's boot before the 5 of us headed off. The weather wasn't as near as nice as yesterdays which was a shame, it was overcast and much cooler. We headed to the coast, passing the Henderson family farm on the way.

We stopped at a beach at Fortrose for morning coffee from the flask along with some home baking :) It was a 2 hour drive in total out to Curio Bay and the Petrified Forest. By the time we got there, the wind was really strong but eventually managed to find a sheltered area to have our picnic. It had been years since I had a proper family picnic with the tartan rugs etc. As soon as we had finished our lunch the rain started and boy did it start, but at least we managed to eat outside.

We stopped at a coffee shop at Fortrose for afternoon tea. It was a lovely day seeing the sights down in the Southland, we took a different road back from there and went past the place where Lisa and Hamish are probably going to book for their wedding on the 2nd March next year, so now I will be able to picture them on their wedding day. It was so windy all afternoon and anytime we stepped out of the car I felt like I was going to be blown over, it was horizontal rain and high winds just like Shetland.

We got back to Margaret's about 5pm so it was a full day road trip and good of Hamish to do all the driving. On one of our stops during the day Margaret bought Whitebait for our tea, which is tiny fish that they catch on the rivers in the area we had been too. All along the rivers you can see small tin huts and a lot of retired people own these and fish for whitebait as a hobby. They are more a delicatessen, they are just eaten like they are caught and you see their big eyes looking at you. Margaret made them into pattys and they were so tasty, while Margaret prepared the tea I managed to pack my backpack and get myself organised. It was the first time I had rolled everything into my backpack and surprisingly everything fitted so much better.

May phoned to wish me luck on my travels and have a news before I left which was really nice. Then after tea we had been invited over to Robyn and Stuarts for a fly and to say goodbye to Stuart. I took my ipad to show Robyn some of my travelling photos and went on the internet to check in online for my flights tomorrow etc which was handy.

We were quite late before we got back so headed straight to bed. Gutted this will be my last night in Margaret's spare bed haha. I am all packed though and ready for my flight in the morning. I really can't thank them enough, it has been such a nice week. Goodnight folks xxx