Tuesday

We were in shock when we awoke this morning. It was actually sunny and hot, for the second day in a row! That is two out of nine!
We embraced this gorgeous cloud-free weather by scrambling out of the tent and towards the kitchens for our hearty winter breakfast of porridge, which we may have added too much 'milk' (e.g. water and powdered milk) to and turned out more the consistency and colour of flu-induced mucus. Yum.
After such a grim fuelling, we headed out of the campsite and braved the world beyond, determined to go to town and explore. We wandered the streets of Hastings, which, despite its general lack of actual activities/anything at all to do is very pretty. Possibly the prettiest habitation in New Zealand. Many of the towns and cities are based along the main road in a long line, bungalows with lots of corrugated iron laying about. Hastings however is awash with sculptural fountains, ponds, green swathes of grass and many flower baskets rioting in colour.
We went intho the Warehouse and caved to the cheapness. We bought, after much price comparision and searching, the cheapest air bed in the store. Now, it works out at 40 pence a night for pure, squishy air-filled comfort. Bliss.
We also bought (on an amazing price) 50 multicoloured fairy lights and two red felt stockings with green felt trim and printed holly. They are amazing and cost us no more than, wait for it...three whole pounds! Bargainous! Ah, so happy with the stockings to decorate our Christmas hotel. We have a plan to raid the two-dollar shop for stocking fillers. It is going to be awesome!
Then, we had a subway sandwich (so many vege, meat for Alex, yet cheap!) Yes, we are obsessed with cheap. Still no jobs.
We went to New World, the supermarket of true brilliance in the Southern Hemisphere, and got some more food to keep us going. Then (long, arduous, hot walk), back at the campsite we cleared out the tent, blew up the airbed and stuffed it inside while feeling light headed from the air loss. Ah, so comfy. So worth it. I am actually looking forward to going to bed tonight.
We made dinner and sat outside to eat it, enjoying the heat and the sparrows. We're going to scope out the movie channel to see if anything good is on tonight.
In the meantime, plans continue for the future. We cannot continue the mega-trip we had planned without cash. So, we are thinking that breaking the trip down is the way to go. This obviously requires working in the inbetween times, so we have pretty much decided to embark on the next obvious stage availible to us - return home and work! Once there is money in the bank...onwards and upwards!