Well we were coming close to the end of our trip and time for our earliest start! The braver among our group (including all the Waltons!) rose early to go down to the octagonal in the centre of Dunedin, to watch Ireland take on the All Blacks in Dublin. A local kickoff of 17.15 meant a 06.15 start for us. There were a few tired and sore heads from the night before including Pa. As it turned out we could have spent the morning in bed. Ireland played okay for the first 30 minutes before being blown away by a far superior team. Luckily the sports bar we were in contained more Irish than Kiwis, so the abuse wasn’t too bad.

Soon we were back on the road and making our way up the coast towards Christchurch. We stopped off at a beach, about an hour away, to get a look at the Moeraki boulders. These boulders are built up over millions of years and are formed somewhat like pearl. They are very unusual to look at and seem quite out of place on the beach. After a brief stop and coffee we were back on the road.

Pete brought us to a very nice gift shop, another 40mins or so along the way, called the Tin Shed. They specialised in wool garments and other souvenirs. We all had a good poke around, and Pa topped up on some Manuka Honey. The shop try to create a fun atmosphere about the place and so have a number of farm animals. We wandered around chatting to the donkeys, goats, sheep, alpacas, pigs, and hens.

Our next and final stop was a late lunch in a coffee shop, owned and run by Pete & Marg’s eldest son Mark. Unfortunately Pete was in a spot of trouble, having failed to inform Mark that 40 hungry people were turning up at 3pm. They coped very well and all the customers left satisfied.

Only an hour further on to Christchurch and we were back to normality, well sort of!!