Of hunky guides and wildlife

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That big smile on Travellin Mama's face isn't because we've just seen albatross, penguins and a magnificent sea lion off the coast of Dunedin. It's because the hunky Heath Ledger-lookalike tour guide with the long funky sideburns who took this picture was just TOO DAMN DELICIOUS for words. My only regret - on this, our third-last day in New Zealand - is that I forgot to turn the camera his way ... and therefore can't share his extreme hunkiness with all of you.

Sorry, ladies.

Ice, ice baby

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Dunedin may be off the beaten track but it’s also my favourite city in New Zealand, and it doesn’t hurt that we’ve discovered an ice rink here - which when you’re a little girl and thousands of miles from home and raised on daddy’s backyard ice is very comforting indeed.

Annie and Molly have hit the ice like it's second nature, mixing it with the hundreds of posing, horny teenagers buzzing around to the beat of a tinny sound system. (All I’d have to do is swap the Pussycat Dolls and Beyonce for a bit of Meatloaf and Donna Summer and poof! I’d be 14 again and back at my old roller rink in Southampton, Ontario, smoking a Player’s Light and vying for the attentions of the cute Roller Fuzz in their tight Levis.)

Ah, but doesn't nostalgia work in the strangest ways.