I wanted to stay in Murchison because, having passed through it in 2010, it struck me as the archetypal New Zealand country village. And so it proved to be - as far removed from the pace and stress of European life as a first-world village can be. But would there be somewhere decent to stay?

This motel looked good on its web-site, and it was. We had one of the newer rooms, in a block of six, but there is another older building, too. Set well off the road, thus quiet, our room was in many ways typical of a modern up-market New Zealand motel, a species quite unique to New Zealand. Americans reading about motels in New Zealand should realise that they are not the same thing as old-fashioned motels in the USA. In New Zealand, exterior access to a room is no problem - security is not an issue.

The room was well-furnished, with a good bathroom and a well-fitted small kitchen, with the car parked out front. We were lucky to be in Murchison at the time of their agricultural show, so we could watch the sheep-shearing competition, not the sort of thing a suburbanite from SE England sees every day. I loved everythingabout Murchison - the big old pub where farmers came for food and drink, the characterful old shops, the surrounding mountains, and the main highway where I could stand on the central white line and take photographs, so heavy was the traffic.