On our last day of touring our guide took us on a long drive, showing us limestone outcrops, pointing out historical battle sites, lamenting some recent history and taking us to a seaside town where the rich and tasteless holiday or retire to.

We saw the Bay of Plenty…

And this view toward Hamilton…

And we stumbled upon the Kaimai Woolshed, where I finally picked up a ball of yarn for the rug. There was even a rainbow to celebrate us finally finding a yarn store that was open…

I thought I was done with yarn shopping. The next day our friend insisted on taking me to the local stores in Hamilton – Knit World and the Knitting Warehouse – on the way to the airport, even though I assured him I didn’t need more yarn. I ended up with some ‘Red Heart’ yarn. Not the Red Heart from the US so mocked by knitters, it turned out, but a nice local yarn. Some Crucci, too. I hadn’t realised the company was local.

And some Taieri Plains tweedy 12ply, which my friend found and went all sentimental over because he grew up there, and when I found out it was only NZ$2.50 a ball I knew it was worth finding another corner of the suitcase to fit it into.

And some black 8ply cotton, which is SO hard to find in Australia.

And this nifty pen, which has a little internal ‘blind’ that you pull down, which has needle size conversions and dress sizes on it.

After stowing the yarn away, we headed to Auckland where we had the worst Japanese food ever, then on to the airport. We farewelled our friend and endured the usual non-knitting time on and off the plane. And then we were home, happy to have our own beds to sleep in, and wondering where I was going to store all this new yarn…