Lodge in the City Wellington

... why Americans are such fatties. It's nice to know that our money buys more pizza, but it also means we are always eating more than we need. Another thing about living in New Zealand is that we walk so much more. The walk we took to get to the bank yesterday is probably just as far as a walk up the hill from a home in St. Peter up to Gustavus. However, we choose to drive that distance to Gustavus instead of walk. Here, obviously a car isn't available to us, but it just ...

... was located. There I found the group of high school girls who were camping next to me at the campsite the night before. The Ship's Cove Campground was strangely arranged and many of the spaces were muddy. There was one neat spot where the trees made a kind of cove and the ground was covered with leaves. You could even hear the waves lapping the shore. This was to be the North American camp site for the evening. There was a small bar about a 5 minute walk down the ...

... independent boutiques and a noticable lack of big chain stores. We took the the famous red cable car up the hillside to the lookout and headed down the botanical gardens and passed through a large rose garden at the bottom. The next day we visited the Te Papa museum for a few hours before driving on to the 2pm Interislander ferry to cross over to the South Island. This was one of the best boat rides I have been on as it was a perfect ...

... of course!). On the way back we went to view point and took a look at Franz Josef glacier before back to town and dinner. Friday 13th February Franz Josef to Westport Drove through the alpine foothills and on through Hokitika, where we stopped to look at some jade (and coffee). Next we stopped at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. These are curious rock formations shaped like a stack of pancakes formed by sediment and weathering. Amongst the rocks were some dramatic surge pools and ...

... poured 2 whiskies out, the 2 young children in the next van to us started counting & suddenly it was new year, but there was no cheering or anyone frolicking about it was so quite on this vast site it was amazing, we stood & watched the stars, then someone in the next field started to play rawhide & queen which was great i thought something happening but nothing so i went around to the next caravan & wished them a happy new year before we climbed into bed.

... to walk the Tongariro River Lookout Track. It took us a little under two hours, so it wasn't epic, but it was a good remedy for the day's driving. Then it was to the DOC site; a field with a 'drop toilet' in the corner, for a basic night's sleep. As it happened, there were three other groups of people there, so it wasn't particularly secluded, but it was still a nice stop. The next day was our big day; we had another long distance to cover, but ...