you must be French....

that's what the lady in the rzther rougn bar said as she came up to us. The place was full of tattoed and rather drunk mostly Maori jumping up and down cheering.

Usually I'd might take offence at being labelled as a member of that nation we Brits like to taunt but I could understand why the lady hzd made the remark. Seconds earlier the All Blacks had, just, beaten the French ag the World Cup final and tne fact that se were European and not dancing around meant we were surely crestfallen Gallic visitors. Seeing the final on a big screen amongstthe Kiwis was a specialevent. Needless to saythe overdue win has meant an AWFUL lot to the nation.

Thankfully I've not ceased cycling altogether. Biddy abd I did a 50km mountain bike ride through the remote bush in Tongoriro natiinal park - where those three volcanoes appear in Lord of the Rings. It really was remote. We saw no-one else in six hours of riding exceot a couple if hunters on quad bikes. we realised that it might be a little remote when the hirer gave us an emergency satelite beacin to use if we got into trouble. The best bit of tge 'ride' was having to wade waist deep across rivers with the bikes on our shoulders.

The Kiwi people really are lovely. There's a positiveness like I found in the US, but a warmth and deeper interest in you. It's vert attractive.

The notices pinned up tell a lot about the place, just as they did in the US. The Americans would put up signs saying 'do not litter - violators will be persecuted under state law 352 and summararily shot' - I made up that last bit. In New Zealand the notices szy 'please don't litter - thankyou'.

I know which notice I'm likely to take more notice if.

We managed the magnuficent Tongorira Crossing this week. Much of it was in snow as we wandered up over the volcanoes with great clefts in the crater belching sulpherous gases. "awesome" as they'd say in America.

Last night was rather wet. So much rain fell that we awoke to find tge tent sitting in about three centimetres of water and Biddy's crocks floating in the tent foyer. So....we treated ourself to a hostel this evening in Napier.....only to discover that there's kareoke going in in tge bar below our window. Tomorrow perhaps we'll head back to the quiet......and rain...of the mountains?