Flag Hotel Southland Hotel Hokitika

... horrible section at the Otira Gorge, the road seemed to drop almost vertically, the rain was relentless but still someone wanted to overtake me &#8211; on you go pal I thought as he hurled towards the scenic lookout named Death&#8217;s Corner ( says it all) &#8211; I have to say I gave that one a miss and concentrated on my descent, with no detours.<br><br> It had been a very long drive so stopped at the quaintly named Jackson&#8217;s Retreat &#8211; he must have long ...

... as soon as you stop. Martijn opted for standing still, and just swatting any sandfly that landed on him (he probably killed at least 20 of them in the 5 minutes we were there and looked like he was doing a Scottish folk dance ;)), while Trude kept walking back and forth to keep them away from her (looking like a woman in need of some valium ;)). Even if taking pictures while either swatting sandflies or while walking is rather tricky, we did ...

Lake Mahinapua was another stop in the middle of no where down the west cloast which was a themed party night organised by Kiwi. We were not too keen on the idea of dressing up but got into the spirit of it. The theme was binbags and we managed to fashion a nun and priest costume out of black and white binbags. The hostel was close to the beach and we ...

... gold. The walk took us up to an excuse for a waterfall, but the overgrown, enchanted forest and spectacular gorge made up for it. After multiple short stops to catch our breath at the beauty we stopped in the lower gorge for our late lunch. Unfortunately we ended up being an early supper for a horde of sand flies looking for an easy meal. These little buggers seem to live on Deet, so were unmoved by the copious amounts of insect repellent we applied to ...

... tree - see previous blogs) with their brilliant red flowers. Driving back to Christchurch over the mountains we caught a 'front' coming from the West Coast (not good!) but managed to outrun the rain and it treated us to a splendid view of a double rainbow. The Canterbury Plains weren't so lucky - they had hailstones the size of golf balls which destroyed a lot of the crops and dented cars! They do have an ...

... to a seal colony. The Bay got its name from Captain Cook who, when his ship became stuck, commented on the "foul winds". The seal colony is one of a few on the South Island. We did the 20 minute walk and got some good views of the seals on the rocks. We made our way to Greymouth, the last major town before entering the Glacier region of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. The drive down the West Coast Pacific Highway is impressive and reminded us a lot of ...

Friday 24 October Otira (Arthur's Pass) S 42° 49.8' E 171° 33.7' And Avalanche Peak Having done some minimal planning the evening before, picked Will up at about 08:30 and headed off west to the mountains. Well, to a shopping mall for Will to get a sweater and gloves, and then to the mountains. Oh, and a sandwich shop, but then direct to the mountains. The road to Arthur's Pass included a number of ...

... and people that all begin with the letter P. After a frantic couple of hours trying to source (and make) a worthy costume for such a night, we headed out to the lake for a bit of a kickaround (someone always manages to find a football at the best times). Then the fun started!........

... worst December in history!<br><br>Looking back at the last time we visited the glaciers, I can see that the weather over the last few days wasn't that bad really; we have had some sun and been able to see right to the top of the glaciers, all ice pinnacles, blue caves etc. We didn't go on the trips; the helihikes cost a fortune and keep getting rained off, and access to the Fox Glacier is currently washed out. You can see a lot ...