Awatuna Homestead Hokitika

... 8211; that should be a blast!<br><br>From the winery I headed inland towards Arthurs Pass which traverses (goodness that&#8217;s a word from my Higher Geography classes) the mountains running down the spine of South Island. The drive started out with scenery which was very reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands with scrubby brown colored hills but then opened out into huge wide flat bottomed alpine valleys. The road had been OK but after Arthurs Pass village there was a ...

... drives much slower than Chrissy would on roads like these ;-)). We did pass a nice waterfall, the Dorothy Falls, somewhere along the way. Upon arriving at the Hokitika gorge we managed to walk all the way from the parking lot down to the gorge (across the swingbridge and all) before we discovered that we had forgotten to bring the sandfly repellent. Sandflies, being rather slow, can not keep up with you while you are walking, but they will land on ...

... as a prisoner so brought a stripped 2 piece outfit, Daniel went as a predator and dressed as a shark and Phil went as a pirate. From Greymouth it was on to Hokitika, we stopped 10 kilometers further south at Lake Mahinapua Hotel where we met the legendary Les Lisle and the locals and had a delicious group steak meal. After dinner we all got ready for the party at Poo Pub where everybody got creative and we played drinking games and danced all night.

Being ten days on the road, we marvelled at just how much we had seen and done. We both felt quite exhausted and hoped we would be able to schedule in some down time in the next few days. That was before we saw the marvels that awaited us! Leaving Murchison, after little over 15 km we came to our first stop in the Buller Gorge, being the longest swing bridge in New Zealand, with some beautiful nature walks through reclaimed rainforest where brave men once panned ...

... and, of course, more seals. You can go whale watching from there and are virtually guaranteed to see them as they have a resident pod. There are also pods of dolphins - each of which has between 100 and a 1000 dolphins. That must be some sight and will be another visit in the NZ autumn, when you also see the migrating whales. One of the highlights for Lyn was seeing lots of Pohutakawa trees (NZ own ...

... have a rest and we enjoyed the cute town. We drove yesterday to the West Coast, stopped along the way at the two glaciers, and had other adventures. We are staying at a Farm stay home with the Berwick's, who have been so charming and hospitable. We went to the glow worm bower at 11:00 pm last night and saw thousands of glow worms doing their thing. We will move on tonight- not sure where we will stay. Have to go- breakfast is on!

... just sat in the shop once, hooked up to my home wi-fi and then went into print!!" We were begrudgingly given access with a huff and a puff and a closing comment "if these tables are needed for evening meals you will have to move"!! Just like Fawlty Towers!! We stayed for 20 minutes and then made our way to the campsite. There was a break in the rain in the morning which allowed us to spend a bit of time at a place called Foulwind Bay which is ...

... outlet ...) just so we had a picture of where we were, but it was phooey so we went back to the hostel. It was a bit miserable really and the other people in our dorm were very noisy when they got in late and drunk ... We don't like being in dorms, but we need to do it a few times so we can save some money to do nice things! Anyway, we got out own back because mummy set her alarm for 6.30 and we certainly didn't try to be quiet when we got up!

Stopping at this pub/motel in the middle of nowhere, you'd expect to be having a sparse dinner and then a quiet evening of doing pretty much nothing. How wrong could one person be?! Tonight, this place was to be the host of a manic 'P' party with fancy dress costumes covering a range of items ...

New Year in Wanaka featured a firework display, two bands (the family one and the one that did the punk version of 'Auld Lang Syne' with beer flying in all directions), and a large crowd including a lot of very drunk teenagers. All pretty harmless though. The drive to the glaciers took us through the dramatically named Gates of Haast and to lots of roadside waterfalls, all in full flow given recent conditions. Apparently NZ has had ...