We got up quite early. It had been very windy all night, but luckily our tent stood in a very secluded spot and we didn't have a Wellington repeat.

We drove from Mt Cook/Aoraki NP to lake Tekapo, to shop for supplies, check our email and have a look at the lake.

The 'Church of the Good Sheperd', built in 1935, has a glass window behind the altar, so you can daydream while the priest conducts mass. A bit further up was a statue of a collie in honour of the sheep dogs who, quite literally, have kept the New Zealand sheep together for years.

We drove on to sleepy Fairlie, where we had a nearly empty campsite at our disposal. Pretty much the first time we were this close to the facilities, usually tents are treated like unwanted second cousins twice removed...

The friendly cleaner let us have a shower before he cleaned them and locked them till four, and we had lunch. We talked to an older lady who was Dutch but had lived in NZ for most of her life.

We spent a quiet afternoon reading and writing. Fairlie is a town of 300 people, so it's not exactly buzzing with activity. In the evening we had a nice dinner and sat in the TV room, watching a programme on Prince Harry & William...