Monday 1st October, Wihai NZ

Brigid cooked dinner before we left for Auckland, so it was 11am before we were on the road.

We remembered to pick up John’s watch, which we had left for repair. (The bracelet had broken, so the watchmaker had drilled out the link and neatly inserted an extra rivet. He also replaced the battery and tested the seal.) We found John’s daughter, Ree, a suitably New Zealand birthday present, which we posted immediately, along with a t-shirt for David which we had been carrying since Seattle.

On the way out of town we came across Dive HQ, a comprehensive dive shop, where we spent an hour or so browsing, before leaving with a waterproof slate (a great technological advance in underwater communication …!) and a waterproof torch.

We spent the night in Wihai, an old mining town, where gold is still mined in an open-cast mine.