MATT; After the excitement of Queenstown we are heading somewhere a bit more relaxed...wine region, Central Otago as recommended by the nice chap in the Wanaka booze shop. Bannockburn seems like the obvious choice.

The drive is amazing...the contrast, from where we have been in Fiordland (the wettest place in New Zealand - 300 days of rain a year) to Central Otago (officialy a desert and the driest part of New Zealand) which are only a couple of hours/few hundred km`s apart, is breathtaking. The scenery is awseome. We get to Bannockburn on a beautiful sunny afternoon and head to a few vineyards - Mount Difficulty, Carrick (where we have an amazing lunch) and Felton Road, where we make a new friend. We do a little bit of drunk driving to the campsite - which we have entirely to ourselves...and is probably my fave campsite and then head out to find the legendary Bannockburn Hotel.

We mentioned to the girl (Caroline) at Felton Road that we wanted to find the local pub and she said we couldn`t miss it (it is one of about 4 buildings on the main street - the only street) and that she would be there from about 5.30. True to her word she was there with her friends Larry, Julian and Heidi and they make us feel very at home. So at home we don`t get back to the van untill about 2am after a long lock in and many free drinks. Ather highlights included Kel teaching the Running Man to the whole crowd, chatting with an actual Kiwi cowboy (Bill) and falling over on all fours on the way out.

Safe to say we were not up early the next day for our drive on to the Catlins...