26 Feb. If up north it was beef, beef and more beef then down here it is sheep and more sheep. This country is no place for a vegetarian. We walked the town today and every second restaurant had sheep carcases splayed out on racks roasting round a central fire. Eating is obviously big here – the rest of the shops seem to sell tourist essentials like plastic penguins (bought one), stickers (yes) and other stuff (no).

I lost a day yesterday, the aftermath of a serious case of food poisoning, and am a bit tender today. I'm not the only one glad of a couple of rest days, there is at least one other in the same predicament.

It's around 9 degrees C outside and the heaters are on all day long. Anoraks are a popular summer dress item and suitably togged up the tourists shuffle on and off the boats that take them out into the harbour for the obligatory viewing of the seals, penguins and lighthouse and their own special Kodak moment. At around NZ$150 I will go to Dunedin instead.

We lost Jose our Guatemalan friend today. He picked up with a Brazilian on the biggest BMW you have ever seen and headed back north. Jose was great company despite a language barrier.

We finish the day with the two Brazilians accompanying us cooking up a BBQ Brazilian style which I think means a 3 hour dinner. At least they got beef. Tomorrow we head back north.