We’ve now moved to the west coast of the North Island, and are in a village called Raglan, which is where the surfers of New Zealand gather – and our view of the beach is great! The Solscape hostel is a surfers paradise, with half railway carriages as double rooms dotted around the grounds, full of surfers discussing their greatest wave and how cool everything is. Sarah’s parents have joined us for the last two days before they head to Auckland and home, so we’re all sharing a big cottage in the grounds with ‘to die for’ views. Or at least they would be to die for if the weather was better than it is. Unfortunately the weather all over New Zealand has taken a turn for the worse, and we’re left peering through rainstorms towards where the beach was earlier! The photo shows the view from the cottage decking, during a break in the rain. But the cloud from the silver lining is that we were able to light a log fire, and have a cosy day catching up and discussing our respective plans for the months ahead.

It’s a real shame that the weather wasn’t better, and our clever plan to get 3 summers in a row by coming down to the Southern hemisphere seems a bit of a distant memory, but in 7 days time we’ll be in Singapore, where it is currently 32 degrees and very high humidity – then we’ll be dreaming about the cool New Zealand summer!