We reached the top of Scotland

Sorry I've not been blogging... 2 reasons: I'm not on my own any longer & I've had long days driving + photographing & I'm really tired. It's much nicer to have a wine and a wind down in the evening but after that then I don't have any energy left.
We've been in Scotland 6 days now & have had blue skies for 5.5 days.  I cannot believe it. 
I think I'm the only person in Scotland unhappy to have blue sky.  For any non photogs reading this, perhaps I should explain. Bright blue sky, bright sunshine & dark shadows make very it very difficult to photograph things like city buildings, castles etc. A cloudy or dull sky, evens out the light and makes images much less contrasty. In short the lovely weather is making photography more difficult.
We went to Elgin cathedral yesterday, and I was utterly gutted to be refused to be refused entry at 3.15pm because the complex closes at 4pm. What?  If we wanted to go back this morning, it would be an hour+ drive back, making a total add on time of probably around 3 hours. While I really wanted to shoot the cathedral that was crazy, we didn't do it.  
The rental car we were given is an MG 4wd (maybe all wheel). Anyway, it's got quite a few bells & whistles, including nice heated leather seats (very handy when the temperature is 3 or 4)... but, it has a driver camera. For god's sake, I'm happily going along, both hands on the wheel, eyes forward & the car will pop up a message AND bing bong at you, saying please focus on your driving.  Whaaat? I got a bit rebellious, funny that, and put my finger over the driver camera, so that generated a message saying "driver assist camera system is malfunctioning", or something like that. Hah! Makes me wonder if even our conversations are being recorded.  Unfortunately the indicator stalk is on the left, as is the gear stick (yup it's a manual). So under extreme pressure, trying to stop or change lanes in a hurry, you hit the windscreen wipers instead of the indicator and you cannot indicate and change gear with your left hand at the same time. What idiot thought that set up was a good idea??
We left Edinburgh 3 days ago and today we reached the very top of Scotland, John O'Groats. It was cold.
We have had fun exploring old ruins, (some we were allowed access to and some not), an ancient celtic pagan site, old castles and we also went on what seemed like an overland safari to get to Rattray light house which is uber cute and then had to walk up and over (what felt like mountainous) sand hills to get back to the car in the dark, we even met some Heiland Coos that did not want a cuddle.
Something we've noticed here is that you use google maps to find a destination you want but once you are there, there is usually little or no signage and you have to guess where to go next.  In NZ, you can rock on up, there is a car park & a sign saying go this way, or you'd be able to see whatever it is you are aiming for. It's not like that here and it is very frustrating having to hunt down where you want to go, especially carrying a 9kg pack of camera gear..
Note: yes, I did try haggis... and no I didn't like it. OK so I'm a traitor my Scots heritage.

Bet you didn't know that NZ is mentioned at John O'Groats

Rattray Lighthouse

Sorry... but that is just wrong!

Pittenweem