Oamaru, New Zealand.

The round boulders at Moeraki not far from Oamaru.

We never intended to spend more time than one night in Oamaru, but we met some great people there that night and one night became two. When we first got there we were desperate to find a shower and kitchen. We turned up at the closest hostel and explained our situation. The manager let us use the shower and kitchen for free! Lovely. There was also a log fire in the lounge, which made a welcome change to the freezing van...

They all taught me to play this dice game. Very simple yet very fun!

Mike, the chap furthest on the right, offered to show us around the next day. We took him up on his offer and had a great day! Our first stop was to the Round Boulders at Moeraki. They're these big round rocks plonked in the middle of a big stretch of beach. Mike seems to think that no one knows how they got there... We didn't go up to the visitors centre since it cost $2. It seemed better to take Mike's word for it.

Reena and Mike on the boulders

Reena and I

We also went on the hunt for penguins and seals... No penguins though. We got up too late!

A vicious seal

Mike was an interesting chap. He was only 23 but already two degrees, had surgery over 20 times due to surfing, snowboarding and who knows what else (and was about to go in for a nose job and cheek implant because he had recently smashed his face in with a surf board - you could see that his face wasn't quite symmetrical...), and was the breakfast radio DJ for Oamaru! He looked about 30, but you could tell he was younger from the enthusiasm he had for life. You don't find that so much in the older people you meet - where does it go?!

Mike was determined to light a fire on the beach so we could sit around, eat our fish and chips and melt marshmallows for desert. Yum!

We stayed that evening to watch the masquerade. It was pretty creepy actually watching them waltz through town.

The masquerade

That night I lost my mobile phone... Im usually so careful with things like that and was so annoyed at myself. Anyway, Reena tried to call it but there was no answer and I couldn't hear it ringing... No hope. A few minutes later, Reena got a call. It was guy named Paul who was ringing for my phone. He heard it ringing in the hostel lounge. He had to turn the place upside down to find it! It was underneath a sofa cushion in front of the fire. Cheers Paul for your honesty! He joined us for the journey down to Dunedin the next day.

We charge 6 cents per kilometre for any additional passengers - not bad eh?! Anyone want to join us?

We took Paul to see the boulders on our journey south.