Kawhaka Lodge Hokitika

... was cheap , the showers were hot and it was handy for cycling into town. This was Hokitika, which I wanted to stop at as it is famous for greenstone carving and I was determined to buy myself something. Mission accomplished at the Artists Co-op Gallery on Monday morning after a very pleasant stroll around town and a relaxing read at the paper with a flat white. I know who carved my pendant and where he gets his stone so that’s more personal than the other options in ...

... to take a few before we fled back to the safety of the car... We then returned to town to have a look in the greenstone shops and managed to find a nice greenstone pendant for Martijn. Look for it in future pictures (although it might be inside his t-shirt :P). We also found a small shop selling stones with little kiwi silhouettes painted on them, and we ended up buying one to take home (finally, a souvenir that is for US and isn't soft and fluffy :D).

... the genuine 1800s steam train and replica saw mill are impressive enough along with replica town. The panning for gold was unfortunately a little fake as they put the gold in the pan for you, but we were taught the basics and could keep the gold we found in our pans. After several hours of wandering around we decided to move on, but the weather was so bad we wouldn't have been able to see the rocks anyhow. And not favouring a 400km drive in the evening we considered ...

... The rest of the afternoon took us past the most photographed stretch of road in New Zealand, being a granite rock overhanging a single track road - for about 50 meters. As the gorge opened up there were similarly spectacular views! The afternoon seemed to slip past and before we knew it, it was early evening as we arrived in Westport. A quick shop and information stop later, we headed to Cape Foulwind - so named by Captain Cook for the foul weather he arrived ...

... they were really thirsty! the barman started to get worried as his beer was running out so he decided to mix lemonade with it and took a risk....but the cyclists found it really refreshing....so radler (which actually means bicycle in whichever language the country this happened in spoke) was born! funny though that i could actually taste the burnt toast flavour in the black beer!! then we got to pull our own glass of our favourite! pretty good to ...

... on a road halfway between the thrillseekers of Queenstown and the "English city" of Christchuch was not in the plan. It was the clutch, you see. The bus was brought in to Queenstown from the north by Bagginz... just, and it needed to get to the mechanics of Christchurch. The next driver going North was Skinz, and he was new. There was no way he'd get it there. Kerry, however, had over 10 years driving trucks. Big heavy, and sometimes broken ...

... glacier. I could see the deep crevasses from high above this river of ice. The dirty grey glacier I saw this morning at ground level had turned into a brilliant white and blue landscape as we flew higher towards the source. As we flew over a saddle we followed a high mountain ridge, we were only flying a couple of hundred feet from the pointy black rock. Then the ridge disappeared and a massive u-shaped valley lay beneath, which contained the huge Tasman glacier. Thousands of feet ...

... was only just big enough for the 2 bunk beds which meant fitting rucksacks in as well was a bit of a challenge ... and piled on the extra blanket to try and warm up. About midnight the beer tour arrived back and after about 45minutes of lights going on and off, generally bumbling about making beds (which frankly could have been made before they left), peace descended once more and I managed a few hours sleep before getting up early and NOISILY to get the bus to Franz Joseph!

... s open camper van where they were creating mayhem inside. We also saw one hanging off a tv aerial, very 'Gremlins' !
Currently on the shores of the Tasman before proceeding up to Greymouth, then across to Christchurch via Arthurs Pass. With any luck we're also going to intersect the Global Challenge fleet, both in Wellington and at their next stopover in Sydney. I shall try to find out which boat is
the repainted 'Logica'.