BELATED SOUTH ISLAND BLOG. Sunday, 12th November. I'm writing this on the laptop in a motel in Te Anau, Fiordland, in the deep south of the South Island. Some kind person nearby has left a wireless Internet connection open that I've managed to latch onto, many thanks to my anonymous benefactor. Picking up the story from where I left off:

We left Auckland on 31st October and headed south for about an hour. We were then obliged to head north again to where we started, because one of us had left our travel plans behind in Mission Bay (no names, no pack-drill). After this local difficulty had been put right we drove to Taupo, where we checked into a motel on the lakeside. It was from here that we saw our first snow-capped mountains.

1st November. Left Taupo and took the Desert Road across to Waiouru and then on to to Paraparaumu, where we checked-in to a motel. On the way across the desert we stopped at the NZ army museum, looked around and had a bite to eat in the restaurant there. Outside the museum, an old cannon with a Russian double-headed eagle mark, but with no words of explanation. At Paraparaumu (called by the locals 'Paraparam') ate at a fish restaurant called 'The Mussel Boys', on the wall a display showing the secret life of the mussel.

2nd November. Departed Paraparaumu for Wellington and checked-in to our hotel. There were activities in Wellington that had brought a lot of visitors into the city for the week-end, including a veterans' rugby tournament. We had to struggle to book anywhere, but in the event the hotel was just fine, if a little, er, unprepossessing.

I'll post this now, and do some more when I get the chance. Only one picture, Anne with the old Russian cannon.