Afternoon Tea in a Secret Garden in the New Forest

After another huge breakfast of granola and blueberry pancakes, we hopped back on our bikes to return them to the Cycle hire company. If it was at all possible, I had managed to forget everything I had learnt about cycling from the previous day, and fell into about four fences in the 10 minute cycle from Daisybank B&B to the train station.

Luckily we were returning the bikes, and not doing any more cycling, otherwise I might have been in some trouble.

We didn't need to check out until 11.00 a.m., so we returned to Daisybank and visited their chickens for a while before returning to our room to relax and pack our things.

After checking out and leaving our bags at the B&B, we headed out to explore the small town of Brockenhurst. We hadn't had time to properly explore the town, and it was nice to wander around all the little shops.

Feeling like it was perhaps time for some tea and cake, we came across the Secret Garden at the Watersplash Hotel, a lovely hidden away cafe in a garden with a big marquee full of comfy chairs and couches. We got in just in time to snag a table in the shade, as the rest were in the hot sun with people being harassed by bees! There's nothing I hate more than having bees buzzing around me while I'm eating. 

We ordered some cakes and coffees, plus Ginger Beer and Raspberry Lemonade, and settled in for a relaxing afternoon.

The cakes were so yummy, and we finally managed to have a good coffee, which we hadn't had since leaving London on Friday. It's so hard to find good coffee outside of London.

Once we finished our cakes, we realised we were still a bit peckish, and ordered a hot dog, having our dessert before our main!

After lunch we headed down the road to explore St Nicholas' churchyard, which is the site of a memorial and 93 graves of New Zealand soldiers from World War I.

Due to its close proximity to Southampton and good railway links, Brockenhurst was the location of the No 1 New Zealand General War Hospital during the Great War.

Every year Brockenhurst has an ANZAC service honouring those men who died of their wounds in their small town.

The graves are so nicely taken care of, with ferns on each grave, and poppies placed in front of many. There are also a lot of native New Zealand plants planted next to the graves. The whole memorial is beautiful and obviously a lot of care goes into keeping the area lovely.

We continued wandering around Brockenhurst, coming across a fat pony in a field on our way back to Daisybank. It was very hard not to run up and pat its fat little tummy, but I restrained myself and we kept walking.

We picked up our bags and got on the train back to London, already missing the local ponies!