"Are we going the right way?"

We went to Whitby today. Look how happy Amy was:

As you can see, it was gorgeously sunny and nicely warm. Managed to find our way there OK - didn't really need the sat-nav until we got into Whitby proper, so we're figuring it's going to be at its most useful when we have to drive in places like Wellington and Auckland.

We had fish and chips for lunch. Extortionately expensive fish and chips - think we get a bit complacent living in Grimsby where it's relatively cheap. Claire almost lost hers to a seagull which divebombed her head and then clobbered her with its wing when it flew away. It had the same sort of evil look as this one:

Had a nice little walk down the harbour wall. Snapped a picture of Beak the Kiwi:

It was supposed to be attacking the abbey on the clifftop, but I kinda failed with taking the photo. Ah well. Look how happy Amy is still. Then we did what we'd actually planned to do and found a Whitby sign to take a photo of. We're so myspace.

Selfie fail. Went a bit wrong on the way home, but managed to find our way - damn sat-nav got me confused. Note to self: trying to pay attention to the map and the sat-nav at the same time is not a good idea. Also almost got stuck going up a massively steep hill and we could just tell the guy in the van behind us was going "bloody women drivers".

So now we just need to get to Whitby, NZ and grab a photo of their Whitby sign. Because obviously.

"Unless one of you particularly wants to get into bed with me..."

Two part booking/planning session today. Looks like we've got the car hire booked, which also covers the ferry crossing between North and South Island. Hurray! Claire decided we need a sat-nav. Anyone would think she didn't trust my navigation skills...

On the subject of navigation, my New Zealand road atlas has also arrived, so obviously instead of helping Claire and Amy to find suitable hostels, I spent the first part of the booking session sticking tabs in the atlas at all the pages we could possibly need. I like maps - it had to be done.

In the later booking session, we got a few more hostels booked, plus "The Trilogy Experience" - which basically means we get to go to Hobbiton, the Maori experience of Te Puia and Te Po and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. So now we've got most of the major expensive things booked. All the fun.

We seem to have mastered the art of finding hostels with 3 bed rooms so we can get a room to ourselves. Hurray. Of course, this might still mean bunk beds, sofa beds and possible sharing of double beds, but who cares? Extra privacy!

Tomorrow, we're heading up to Whitby to test our navigating skills. Or rather, how well I can explain to Claire which way she needs to go. Should be interesting. We also want to find a "Welcome to Whitby" type sign so we can grab a photo of it. There's a Whitby just outside Wellington in New Zealand and well, it kind of has to be done.

And of course, I only remember as I'm about to post this that Beak the mascot failed to make an appearance. Oh dear. She'll just have to come to Whitby with us tomorrow.