Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

Day 4 of Anna and Rhodri's road trip.
Vehicle of choice: 5 year old metallic beige Hyundai Accent
Total kms driven: 967
Total number of sheep beeped at: 183,000 approx
Roadkill: 1 small bird at 100km/hr
Route: Oamaru to Waikawa (The Catlins)


We were the coolest people in the Waikawa holiday lodge.

This wasn't hard as were made up 66.6666% of the residents of the Waikawa lodge and judging by the action in the street outside, for one night we made up probably 50% of the residents of the village.

We were in the Catlins which for those tracking our progress enthusastically with a map/globe is in the south east corner of the the south island of New Zealand. Our selected destination for the night was the 'cosy' and 'homely' Waikawa Holiday Lodge. Odd with a capital O.

We paid for our accomodation at the cafe 4kms up the road and were sent off in the direction of the lodge and told we were in room 1. There is apparently no need for keys around here.

When we arrived the place was in darkness and freezing cold. We found the open door and made ourselves at home. Problem; it's quite hard to make yourself feel at home in a room where the lights don't work. So we set about lighting the fire and turning all the heaters on and waited for the owner to come and sort the lights. He arrived and brought with him our housemate (in room 2, funnily enough.) After initial suspicions of this guy being a mass murderer, he actually turned out to be very friendly. The evening passed murder-free and we even managed to complete a penguin jigsaw with one piece missing.

Overall the experience was good. It was fun to stay somewhere that seemed so remote. I'm sure we will repeat it again but perhaps not in a rush.