Stations Inn Hokitika

Today we travel state highway 6, which is rated in the 10 ten drives in the world.

Our first stop is Cape Foulwind, a pleasant walk, with New Zealand's largest seal colony. You can also sniff the Kangaroos as this is the New Zealand's most westerly point, and so closest to Australia.

Back onto the bus and a short drive to the next ...

... considering there isn't really anything THERE for tourists to see or do. So we gladly took the opportunity to recover further and work on our travelblog (Is everyone enjoying it still? :P). Just like in every other place we have stayed at so far, in Westport we also had to check out before 10am. WHY this is the case everywhere, we don't know. We are used to check-out times of 11am or even noon, both of which are quite nice and ...

... the Waimakariri River. We then pass through the Southern Alps before descending through lush beech rain forest to Greymouth. You really know you are on an island with changeable weather - we have brilliant sunshine until Arthur's Pass then it turns colder and drizzle fills the air. We think to oursleves after months of sun 'we don't do rain anymore". The views from inside the train are great but even better from the open-air viewing carriage. Still ...

... full effect. Unfortunately we made it there at low tide and a six hour wait didn't fit into our schedule. They were still impressive. Finally at Hokitika we gathered information and over a coffee decided to book a glacier walk (Franz Josef) for two days time. As we were both feeling exhausted, we had our first evening of relative relaxation even though Kirsty became productive and submitted a job application. Although supposed downtime there was no rest for the wicked!

we found an independent site at westport very hillbilly but very cheap, there were old converted buses & vans looked as tho they had come out of the arch. but the following morning it was up with the lark, this is getting too regular stuart will be expecting this when we arrive home! we headed towards caters beach & cape foulwind, there was to be a seal colony there, they were certainly there, it was not called foulwind for ...

... trips in New Zealand. Not exactly economies of scale to be achieved there. The trip over was very damp. Rain and cloud obscured most of the view, so I'll save the info for the ride back. The commentator himself was as bitter as a pint of London Pride. Some comments were funny, but he added extra comments about social flaws that perhaps had no place on the train (eg satellite dishes on houses in a town we passed - he believed the library would be ...

... obviously carried on past the signs. Bits of glacier occasionally fall off and hit unwary tourists so I had to be alert. Up close, the glacier is an intimating beast, water pours from the bowels of the dirty ice with rocks and ice moving under the stresses and strains. After leaving Franz I drove north along the coast to Hokitika before heading inland onto the Arthur's Pass road which connects the west coast to the east coast bypassing the high southern Alps. I've parked up ...

... por escribir un tratado del casino con el slogan: be patient, be humble and listen to the universe y prometo que tengo que recuperar el video que Sean hizo del tratado porque todavia me estoy muriendo de la risa. IN DE VORIGE HOSTAL HEBBEN WE NAAST ONZE IERSE VRIENDEN SEAN EN DEIRDE, NEN FRANSMAN LEREN KENNEN EN EEN SPAANSE, REGIS EN SYLVIA. WE ZIJN ALLEMAAL SAMEN NAAR DE GLACIERS GETROKKEN. IK KON ...

... voor ons alleen zouden hebben. Lekker op tijd naar bed en uitslapen.... Een zwitsers echtpaar kwam binnen, maar ook met z'n vieren was er ruimte en rust genoeg om te delen.

De hostel-eigenaar verstoorde ons plannetje: later die avond zou er een groep van Hiking-NZ binnenkomen en aangezien het maar bleef regenen, kon het nog wel eens zijn, dat zij de overgebleven bedden in beslag namen.
En jawel, dat deden ze. En aangezien hun leider jarig was, hadden ...