We drove the three hours to the capital, Wellington, more or less continuously and I got stressed when the road we took fell off the map and I got us a bit lost in the hills of Wellington.

However, despite my bout of bad navigating we arrived at Rowena's place, and after a while we rather wish we hadn't. We'd grown accustomed to Top 10 standards (families keeping quiet and clean), not the scruffy backpackers we walked through. But the Top 10 was miles out of the centre and scruffy Rowena, bless her, only a ten minute walk down the steep hill.

So we set up camp in what was probably the windiest spot in all of Wellington, and that, I can tell you, is saying something. It was Keiron's turn to get stressed when all the pegs were getting bent in the soil and he threw some in frustration.

We made sandwiches and had lunch at a dirty table, then went to town, changed the last of my travellers cheques and went to the supermarket. Back at Rowena's we decided what to do in the big city, had dinner and took off to go to the cinema.

We saw Closer, based on the play by Patrick Marber, with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. It was very good but a little depressing, not exactly lightening the mood.

When we got back, our tent was still there, amazingly, but it had been surrounded by other tents. When we crawled in, I felt like a sardine.