If This is Palmerston North, Where's Palmerston South?

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Bus travel in New Zealand has been pretty painless so far and today was no exception. We've been surprised in fact at just how straighforward it's been and how lovely and quiet the roads are. Even the motorways, which in English terms are nothing more than single carriageway A-class roads with the occasional spot for overtaking, have barely any traffic on them. It's a refreshing change from all the hustle and bustle of Asian roads as well as the roads back home, that's for sure.

We couldn't reserve seats on the morning bus as it was all booked out so we checked out of our room at the Rainbow Lodge and squeezed in another couple of episodes of Battlestar Galactica before slowly making our way to the bus terminal for our 4.45pm departure. We arrived bang on time and were due to be met by Tina but there was no sign of her when we climbed off the bus. It was at this point I began kicking myself for not finding out what she actually looks like! Then, after standing about for 10 minutes wondering what to do, an electric blue PT Cruiser rounded the bend into the Palmerston North bus terminal and out stepped the spitting image of my mum's penpal, Liz. Tina had arrived!

Tina made us feel very welcome from the word go and quickly whisked us away to her gorgeous house in the suburbs. It felt wonderful to be in a real home again with a bedroom that actually had those homely touches in it like matching duver cover and pillowcases and clean carpets. We were given towels so big and fluffy that we could have easily slept in them comfortably all night! Best of all though, we had some good company again.

Tina was a star - a lovely, forthright person with something interesting to say about the world. We spent the evening chowing down on some of her delicious homemade macaroni cheese (and Glynn was positively salivating at the mouth when Tina offered to fry him some bacon) and getting to know each other. Tina's sister, Pamela, joined us later on when she got back from walking her very handsome big black dog called Nig (half poodle, half labrador) although we noticed that the two sisters didn't seem to be talking to each other. Nevertheless, it was a lovely evening that culminated in the best night's sleep Glynn and I have had in months. Thanks again mum - you really do know the best people over here :-)

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