Drinks with our hosts went on for nearly 2 hours as they were very interesting and friendly. Peter's grandfather was the first man to fly a plane across from the south to the north island and in their youth they used to pack their 3 kids and dog into a little biplane to go for a picnic in the wilds. All NZers we've met love the UK and peter and Bindy had played many of the golf courses John knows in Scotland and Ireland. Their garden opens right onto the second tee and Bindy says she often plays just the second to the sixth hole when she has a moment. Dad, you would love it! Peter lent John his golf clubs yesterday so he played a round while I caddied, took photos and enjoyed the walk and views.It was cool under a blue sky with hot sun, fab scenery and John was v impressed by the condition of the greens. This bit is for the golf lovers- every one else, look away......The course was a par 68 and John finished with a par 92 which he was pleased with as he hasn't played for over ten years. Only a couple of trees suffered during play and it all looked pretty impressive to me. Anyway, back to our journey here ............... We drove from Fox to Greymouth where we stopped for lunch. That was our first mistake. Grey by name, grey by nature. This is a town that hope forgot. Around this area you're notexactly spoilt for choice for habitation, let alone towns, so we didnt have a wealth of choice over the top ten places to eat. It was Greymouth or nothing for another two hours.We parked and wandered the thoroughly depressing town centre. Many of the shops were empty and one even had hay bales stored in it.It was Saturday afternoon which means that loads of places were already shut ( NZ not yet being afflicted by the 24/7 shopping mentality and valuing evenings, Sat afternoon and Sunday as time off)and the cafe and pub that were open looked so depressing that I could imagine welcoming Salmonella as a quick end to a meal therein.It was so bad that we actually sought out a McDonalds- times are tough when the best gastronomic delight is a McD's. I have photographic evidence that we had a McAngus burger and a Mc Flurry and I'm sure if we had been x rayed shortly after, we'd have glowed in the dark. We took a quick walk along the sea wall which was about 20 feet high- whether to keep the sea out or Greymouth hidden is a moot point- and which acted as a grey stone dead end to the main street. There was one statue- of a fishermen with a plaque which read'for those who serve others' but which should have read ' get out while you still have the will to live'. So, if you ever win a prize for a week's holiday in Greymouth, run away. Hours later and we drove into Hanmer Springs which is the NZ equivalent of an American ski resort. So quaint you could eat it. It's here because of the hot springs which is where we're off to after lunch. We 'd booked the accommodation in a hurry so were gobsmacked on arriving to find an oasis of luxury and delight. A huge room with sofa and TV, DVD's, a mini kitchen, beautiful furniture and crockery,views to kill for, a warm welcome with a tray of pâté and camembert and a bottle of wine, cooked breakfast with accompanying flowers delivered to our room at the time of our choosing and....... an invitation to take away our washing and return it the next day for free. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven and I'm still not convinced that that isn't the case. All this for only £20 more a night than we paid Raelene for the Oprah stay. We were going to stay one night but decided to stay three and relax and live the NZ dream- chilling, golf, hot springs, lunch on the sun drenched terrace and just drinking in the absolute peace and quiet. We've cancelled our plans to whale watch ( we'd both done it before) and see Wellington ( a city just can't equal what we have here) to stay here then hotfoot it to the ferry tomorrow and onto Mandy and Peter on Wednesday. Love to you all from what feels like Paradise xxxxxxxxxxxxx