So this is what a tortoise feels like!

We seem to have got the bed-making and dismantling down to a … no, not a fine art,

more a graphic design and so our wheels have become our home, rattling around New Zealand behind us. In fact the cab bit feels not unlike a car but the cushions, pots, pans and drying washing flying around in the rear view mirror remind me a) to slow down, b) to take corners a little more gently than in the Holden V6 and c) that we are now in the land of ultra-chill where the Aussie “No worries” sounds quite panic-struck and paranoid.

We are beginning to resign ourselves to much more variable and cooler weather than in Aus and even in North Island. One minute it’s blue sky, the next black and stormy, one minute calm the next blowing a hurricane.We got away from Christchurch and headed south for Waikiki and then on to Oamaru. We had another look at some penguins which are the same as the ones on Philip Island but are called Blue here. It was much less commercialised than Philip Island and the view of them coming out of the sea was much better. Oamaru was a Victorian wool town and fascinating. Heather got yet more fabric for patchwork!

The next morning we headed for Dunedin, as Scottish as it sounds and dubbed the Edinburgh of NZ. On the way we turned off to a place called Moeraki and looked at some fur seals basking.

We got involved in a long chat with some people who have come away from Christchurch. One woman who had brought her grandson with her had pretty much lost her house. Their descriptions of what if was all like were spell-binding and the elderly man who was part of the group said how helpful it was to talk about it.

A lot of people have left the city and come to this area and clearly Christchurch is very twitchy. It has been noted that the temperature in the city has risen by two degrees and that has led to some speculation and ‘Moonman’, some local soothsayer, is now predicting a Richter 8 on March 20 and that really does seem to be getting too much coverage. Wellington got a wobble last night of 4.1 and with them long overdue a biggy they too are now going to be on edge.

After that we went to see the Moeraki Boulders, extraordinary, almost perfectly spherical boulders on the beach which no one can totally reliably explain.

 

 

 

 

 

Having got to Dunedin we stayed at a Butlins on wheels which was not very nice but meant we could see this kilted town, including what they boast is the steepest street in the world.

We decided to photograph it rather than test it: in fact you are not allowed to drive up it and I suspect this tortoise wouldn’t make it anyway.

The route from there to where we are now was beautiful. Sheep by the million, lovely rolling countryside and the weather I described before. Our site is nestled beside a beautiful estuary and we can see the sea in the mid-distance. Now this is what carrying your home round with you should be like.