The Mother-in-law from Hull - Phil

This is an attempt to update the blog a bit quicker than last time, as we realise that it was left a bit too long....

We now have Carol with us, and have been travelling with her for the last 2 weeks. It has been quite an experience, so I will try and make sure I don't miss out on any gratuitous moments.

Our last blog ended with us in Wanaka, from where we travelled to Queenstown. We drove straight into the centre, which felt like a metropolis compared to the places we had seen over the last 2 weeks. We met up with Nic (a friend from Ohakune) at one of the bars, where we also met her brother Dan. We agreed to meet up the following day for a game of Frisbee-golf. This is essentially the same principle as normal golf, but instead you thrown your own frisbee a number of times towards a bin (the 'hole'). After our drink with Nic, we headed out to set up camp for the night. We didn't actually stay IN Queenstown, but rather stayed just outside at Moke Lake, a DOC site. This is probably the most dramatic and beautiful site that we've had the good fortune to stay at so far. We loved it, and were one of only a few campervans staying there. (This is getting quite rare as we head into summer and campervans are getting more and more ubiquitous).





Our main aim for the next day or so was to completely overhaul Salvador and all our belongings – with Carol's arrival imminent, we knew that we had a Hodson-amount of luggage to accommodate for over 2 weeks, and had to make sure there was ample space. Leaving Moke Lake behind we headed for a proper holiday camp where we could get showers, do washing, and charge up electrical goods.
We ruthlessly got rid of all the stuff that we hadn't really used for the last few weeks/months, despite Meg's occasional protestation that we 'might' use something. We ended up clearing a whole box'-space under the bed, which we would use for Carol's belongings.

Once these boring chores were done, we headed into town to meet Nic and her brother Dan. As we headed to the frisbee-golf course (which is in the main central park in Queenstown), Nic rang to tell us that they had decided to play some lawn bowls instead, which was also nearby. This was a fantastic choice. Me and Meg have never played bowls before, but we both loved it. We drank white wine, ate crisps and rolled the balls around. There is a clear knack to the technique, but it was very satisfying and enjoyable. The 'pitch' was, like the frisbee-golf, in the main park, so was not far from town and had an amazing view all around. If we are allowed, it will be nice to play bowls when we return to the UK. As long as the old people don't mind.







Me and Meg headed back to Salvador while Nic and Dan headed out to see The Wailers gig (lucky buggers).The next day Meg was due to fly to Auckland to meet Carol.

In the morning, we didn't have long before Meg was due at the airport so I dropped her off at 9am, and then found I had the whole day to myself. This was the first moment in about 8 months that I had entirely to myself – no Meg, or no work to go to either. I therefore decided to make the most of my day off, and go for a big walk. I chose to tackle the Ben Lomond summit, which towers about 1800 metres above Queenstown. After our trek up the Roy's track in Wanaka, I felt that this would be a suitable follow-up. The day was a scorcher, and nearly all of the walk was on exposed hillside. Nevertheless, I rocketed up the walk, and made it to the summit in just over 2 hours. The view was incredible, and had Lake Wakatipu to one side, and the Southern Alps to another, and the Remarkables on another. The air was still and calm, and still hot despite being so high up. This is now the highest hill I have ever climbed. I really enjoyed it.






Heading back down to Salvador who I had left in Queenstown, I was lucky enough to get some more great views of the town below me, as well as some very peaceful paragliders floating through the air. I would like to to do this sometime as it looks very relaxing.




While I was doing all these exciting things, Meg was busy twiddling her thumbs in Auckland. She had arrived in Auckland and given herself a good 12 hours or so before Carol's arrival. Unfortunately, the weather in Auckland was the opposite of Queenstown which meant Meg was confined to her hotel by the airport. I think she caught up on some shut-eye and did some sticking in for our memory book.





Carol's flight arrived at about midnight, and Meg met her as planned. However, I will leave it to Carol to explain her flight and experiences. Carol will be doing a 'Guest blog' in the next few days....





On the Thursday morning, I was just busy making sure I was prepared for Carol, hurriedly making some fresh bread, finishing washing clothes and doing some last-minute shopping before getting to the airport for about 11am. Meg and Carol were just coming out of the terminal as I arrived, so the whole affair was very calm and relaxed. Carol got her first ride in Salvador, which she very much enjoyed (of course) and we took her back to the campsite. We knew (or expected) that she would be pretty tired, so had nothing planned for the day other than to relax, eat, and get her settled into Salvador.
We had a laid back lunch and bubbly to celebrate. We had a short walk along Lake Wakatipu, and Carol got lucky and quite close to a shag. (This is a bird).
In the evening we had a BBQ (our first - ! - since being in NZ) and watched coronation st.
The plan for Carol's duration was for Carol to sleep in Salvador and me and Meg to sleep in the tent (Agnes), so I had put the tent up in the morning and got it ready with all our extra bedding.. Carol's box and belongings comfortably fitted into the slot that we had allowed for it, so everything had gone according to plan. Everyone slept well that night (ish).




On Friday, our adventure with carol was to begin properly. We headed into Queenstown to explore and get Carol fully immersed in NZ. We headed straight for the Gondola, which is basically a cable car, up the hillside next to the town.






At the top the view was fantastic and we even all had a go on the luge – a funny racing track where you sit in a simple kart which you control by pushing either forwards or back. It was v cool.






We also had a walk along the skyline track, which gave us a view of the Ben Lomond hill that I had climbed 2 days earlier.

We met up with Nic and Dan again and I got my first taste of proper leaf tea – the funny little metal ball things full of herbs and spices that you drop in the cup of hot water. It was good. I would definitely like some more. Carol has since bought us some metal balls for us to use.

Leaving Queenstown we headed to Arrow town, which turned out to be one of prettiest towns we have visited. It is an old mining town and still has a few streets full of the original miner's cottages, on a beautiful tree-lined avenue. All the shops and buildings are still the original mining style that makes the town feel really quaint. We had arranged to go to Arrowtown because there was a 'trolley dash' scheduled to be there on the Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy in the morning but there was still a good turn-out of people. The whole event was for a good cause – the local pre-school, who had put on the whole event and do so every year. There were about 20 home-made trolleys, all in different styles, and different speeds! It was really good to watch and was nice to see a local community event that everybody was supporting. There was a really good atmosphere in the town, and we spent quite a while wandering round all the little stalls that were there.








The following day we were booked onto an overnight journey on Doubtful Sound - our christmas present from Carol (Thanks Carol!!!) - so we had to travel towards Te Anau the night before. We decided to stay at one of the local DOC sites on the Milford Rd rather than staying in Te Anau, and eventually chose to stay at Walker's Creek, a tiny basic site. We were blessed with the amazing sunset, but that was balanced out by the large number of sandflies that swarmed around the tent and campervan!




We wanted to be clean before getting our midday boat to Doubtful Sound so quickly called in at a holiday park to use their shower facilities, and then got off to Manapouri. The weather had been forecast as rainy and miserable but the sun had come out and it was blue skies everywhere. Initially we had to get a boat over Lake Manapouri, which was an amazing trip in itself – as we entered fiordland, the hills got bigger and the lakes bigger. It took about an hour and ended at the West arm power station – which provides about 15% of NZ's energy and was the focus of a famous political hot potato in the 70's, when environmental issues really started to have an effect on political decisions.
From there we got a bus over the Wilmot pass, with the bus driver stopping at all the best places for photo and informative opportunities. As we headed over the pass, Doubtful Sound came into view and it was unbelievable. We finally saw the scale of the sound and it was truly awe-inspiring.



When we arrived at the boat we quickly found our room and after an initial confusion with the room allocation, we were given a 4-berth room for the 3 of us.



We were then treated to some complimentary muffins and drinks as we made our way into the Sound proper. The boat was pretty luxurious and there was a constant commentary by the onboard nature guide who had a thorough knowledge on NZ's history and environment, obviously very enthusiastic about it all. The whole area was amazing, with the most massive cliff-faces and waterfalls everywhere. Some of the waterfalls would classify as some of the tallest in the world, but they are not included in any official lists as there are not permanent, i.e. they only appear after it has been raining.






After a couple of hours, we were taken down Crooked Arm, an offshoot from the main sound. This was where we had the option of either kayaking on the sound, or being taken out on a tenderboat with one of the nature guides. Me and Meg were both keen to do some kayaking, but expected that Carol might prefer to go on the tenderboat. However, Carol surprised us by revealing she had been having kayaking lessons back in the UK before she came away! So we all ended up kayaking around Doubtful Sound - a fantastic experience as we were pretty much left to our own devices as we kayaked around Crooked Arm for about 90 minutes. Meg was understandably nervous after her Wanganui river experience, but overcame her fears and Carol performed admirably too. Some of the kayaking was over small waves and the water was about 200 metres deep.







As we arrived back at the boat, we were given the option of whether we wanted to go swimming in the water. The staff had informed us that the water was about 10degrees, so wasn't particularly warm. However, the brave among us (or the stupid) decided to have a go, so I happily volunteered. Jumping off the balcony off the boat's side into the freezing water was certainly....invigorating.



We were treated to hot soup after our kayaking and swimming escapades and were taken further out towards the open sea. We saw a few penguins, a few distant dolphins, a couple of albatross and hundreds of seals. We also went out onto the open Tasman sea, which is quite rare as the sea is normally too rough.







As it got darker, we were brought into the main cabin for dinner, where we were treated to the largest buffet I have had for a long time. I greedily gobbled up some roast chicken, beef and lamb, as well as some salmon and tonnes of veg and salad. And then dessert. There was about 70 guests as well as us, and everyone was very friendly and equally as over-awed as us. After dinner, the nature guide presented a slideshow talk on NZ's flora and fauna which was very entertaining and interesting. By the end, it was about 10pm, and completely dark outside. Meg took some nighttime photography but it was a bit too cloudy for any good pics.

The next day brought a sharp contrast to the first. We woke up to a very eerie misty morning, which gave the whole sound a really moody atmosphere. It was great to witness it like this, especially after the gloriously clear day we had had the day previous.




After a cooked breakfast we saw some more penguins (fiordland crested) and seals, and got to taste some genuine fiordland springwater, which we collected from waterfalls at the side of the sound. We also got treated to a 'sound of silence' where the boats engines were turned off, everyone turned off their phones and cameras, doors were shut, and everyone remained quiet for 5 minutes. We were moored in a tiny cove of the sound, and it was awesome to hear nothing but the birds and wind and waterfalls.

The whole sound felt completely untouched and really felt like we'd walked back in time. We were the only boat we saw for 24 hours, and felt really isolated. The whole operation was really well done and we felt really honoured to have had some time there.

On the journey back, the bus driver stopped for us at various points that he thought we'd find interesting and we got to see some Mount Cook Lilies – large buttercups that are found in NZ and only flower for a few weeks in Alpine conditions.



We also got to see some Kea, a cheeky alpine parrot that is quite prevalent in Fiordland. I have become a keen birdwatcher in NZ so was excited to see one of these, which I hadn't up til this point (apart from a distant one at Franz Josef).

Back in civilization, we stopped at Te Anau to visit the cinema where a short film was showing called 'Ata Whenua', or 'Shadowlands' – a film created by a local helicopter pilot, who had access to some truly unbelievable shots of the fiordland landscape. The whole film was a homage to the beautiful environment that is a privilege to those who know about it. It was only 30 minutes long and had some fantastic images, but frankly, the music was awful.

From Te Anau, we had a long drive to Wanaka. This took about 4 hours, and was through very pretty countryside and wine country, but it had turned quite hot, which was strange after our misty moody morning on Doubtful.
Arriving in Wanaka, we had all decided that Carol should stay in a cabin/hut, where she would have more space and probably a better night's sleep than in Salvador. It also meant that me and Meg wouldn't have to put up the tent! Hurray!

On Tuesday, we had arranged to do a wine tour in Central Otago. We had found a really funky company called Funny French Cars, so we got picked up in a Citroen 2CV at 9.30am and we were ready to go wine-tasting! We had picked this company as Carol had used to have a 2CV and it was a surprise for her,, which I think she enjoyed. In the course of the day we visited 5 or 6 (I can't remember!) vineyards, and tried about 6-8 wines in each place. Of course, it was only a sip of each wine, but it must have amounted to a full glass of wine at each vineyard, so we were all pretty tired by mid-afternoon. The central Otago area is known for their Pinot Noirs, which both me and Meg are fans of, but even I was getting a bit sick of Pinot by the end of the day! Otherwise we also tried plenty of Chardonnays and a few Rose's. We weren't on the look-out to buy loads of wine, but were scoring each wine at the vineyards, and the one that we bought was Meg and Carol's favourite – Friends and Lovers, a Rose from the Bald Hills estate. We had lunch between vineyards at a pretty nature reserve, as we had prepared a packed lunch before we set off.






In the afternoon Julie (our chauffeur) took us to see a local artist, Alan Waters, who is well-known in the region. He had a fantastic house overlooking Cromwell and had some interesting pieces of art, all watercolors but very vivid and rich.



Julie also took us to a local ice cream makers, where we all had huge ice-creams.





On Wednesday, Carol wanted to have a look around Wanaka, as she had not really had time to explore, so me and Meg went to Puzzleworld while Carol was in town. Puzzleworld is a popular attraction in Wanaka, and is a bit like a tiny theme park, and would be great for kids. Or us.
There are loads of optical illusions everywhere, and some really cool rooms where your senses were really confused. For example, there was one room that was built at an angle of about 30 degrees. So because all the fittings/pictures etc were at the same angle, you started to feel uneasy and a bit drunk. Also, my favourite room, which was built so that from one side it looked like you were a giant, and in the other corner you felt like a dwarf. It was very funny.







We picked up Carol in town and headed on our way northwards. After the drive from Te Anau to Wanaka, we had sat down and re-discussed our plans with Carol. Initially we had hoped to drive all the way back up to Auckland with her, but Carol found the amount of driving combined with the heat quite exhausting, so we had agreed to cut driving times down and just remain in the south island, and Carol would just fly back to Auckland from Christchurch. This was good, as it meant me and Meg would stay in the south island (our favourite) for longer and we'd also probably end up working there over Christmas, rather than the north.
So instead of heading straight over to Christchurch, we were able to stop at Lake Pukaki for the night. On the way we went over the Lindis Pass, which is one of three east-west Passes. It was another beautiful day so the views were great and the landscape was really dry – something we had not really seen so far. We pulled over in Omarama for some refreshments at The Wrinkly Ram, and the surrounding area was full of lupins - in fact, none of us had ever seen so many lupins in our life - there were millions all along the roadside





Lake Pukaki was incredible. It was a lightning blue colour that looked artificial, but is completely natural, being the glacial water from the alps. We camped in a free campsite right next to the lake, and had views over towards Mount Cook, where we would be going the next day. The water was pretty cold, but me and Meg still braved it to get washed in (there was no shower at the campsite). Me and Meg put up the tent, but the night was very windy, and although we got some sleep, Carol was awake half the night worrying about us and even came out twice to check our guy-ropes! Needless to say, we were still there in the morning.





The morning was crystal clear, and we could see Mount Cook, our destination for the day. We drove up the 50km road leading to it, stopping at the relevant places for photos. When we got there, we visited the most magnificent visitor centre we have been in so far – a really modern building, designed with a huge rhombus-shaped window looking out to Mount Cook. As Carol had not slept well, it was decided that me and Meg should do a reasonably hard/long walk while Carol rested in Salvador. The track was called the Hooker valley track, and took us along the valley, over 2 swingbridges, past the Mueller glacier and towards the Hooker glacier. Along the way we saw hundreds more of the Mount Cook lilies. When we got there, there was a glacial lake formed, along with 2 small icebergs, that had broken off from the glacier. These bits of ice were over 600 years old, having travelled down from the top of the alps all the way down to the lake, and they were only going to last another few hours before melting into the lake. It felt strange and quite honoured in a bizarre way to see the last moments of an age-old iceberg....






When we arrived back at Salvador, Carol, although not slept, had rested and was happy to do smaller walk in order to see a glacier. We took her on the Kea Point walk, which went a separate way up to the terminus of the Mueller glacier.




From Mount Cook village, we headed about 80km to Lake Tekapo, which is just east of Pukaki. Lake Tekapo is also a lightning blue colour and has the village of Tekapo on its shores. Tekapo is famed for the church of the good shepherd, which I had been led to believe (by photos and literature) was a lonely church in the middle of nowhere. However, I was mildly disappointed to see that it was on the edge of the village and was certainly not in as much a barren landscape as I expected. It was still a lovely church and had an amazing view, but obviously was not quite so isolated as the photos had implied.





Tekapo and the surrounding region is also famed for having some of the clearest night skies in the southern hemisphere. There is the Mt John observatory just next to the village, 300m up a hill (Mount John, coincidentally), and they ran night tours on clear nights. Well our luck was in, it was the clearest night sky they have had for weeks, so we booked ourselves in for the tour. At 10pm we were picked up from our campsite and taken up the hillside to look at the telescopes and get toured around the stars. The guides were excellent and gave a simple guide to the stars we could see with our naked eye, pointing out the southern cross, the Magellanic clouds, Achernar, and the true south pole star (or rather, lack of). We also saw Jupiter, orion, and a number of astrological constellations. We were then free to look through the telescopes that they had set up for us which had close-ups of the moon, Jupiter, the seven sisters, and others. Meg was drawn to their in-house photographer who was helping people with obtaining some night-time photography. He had a mount rigged up that could accommodate up to 5 SLR's or DSLR's at one time. The mount was designed so that it moved at the right angle and speed as the stars so that during long exposures of the sky you wouldn't get any star-movement or blurring. Meg had deep discussions with him (his name was Fraser Gunn) and ended up with some awesome pictures – some 2 minute exposures that when you look at them, you can zoom in and see more and more stars every time you zoom in – they really are brilliant. (Should note that Meg has not processed any of those photos yet, so i can only upload one that i took of the moon from my little camera through the telescope)







We were quite tired when we got back to the campsite at 1.30am, but all quite pleased with what we had seen.

In the morning, we treated ourselves to breakfast in a cafe (woop-woo!) - we normally have our homemade muesli, and Meg retrieved her tripod from the stargazing company as she had left it on the bus the night before. Our plan for the day was to head over to Christchurch, which we did at a leisurely pace. The drive was a bit disappointing as we had become used to rolling hills and snow-topped mountains, and suddenly we found ourselves on flat ground going through dull-looking towns...We stopped along the way at a garage for some refreshments and chocolate and got to Christchurch at about 5pm. We camped just outside in New Brighton, which is just by the coast, and had a buffet dinner – roast chicken, bread, dips, crisps, etc.
Carol had another cabin at this campsite as it has been decided since that Carol is more comfortable in a cabin an probably sleeps better than in Salvador. This is fine for us (Me and Meg) as it means we don't have to put up the tent anymore and can sleep in our beloved Salvador!
Meg and Carol had an evening walk along the estuary, while I washed and cleaned- Pa ha! They had a nice walk and got barked at by a dog on a roof.
Carol then taught us to play Rummy. This is a card game. I didn't win any games.

We had a full day in Christchurch ahead of us, and I had had communication from one of my cousins, Rob, that he was also in the city with his girlfriend Sarah, so we arranged to meet them in the afternoon. Initially we got the bus into town – this was a treat in itself as we normally have to drive ourselves everywhere – it was great getting the bus. We headed for the arts centre where the weekend market was taking place. We strolled around the arts and crafts stalls, and admired the paintings/jewellery. There was also the dyslexia centre here which had some artwork created by, surprise surprise, dyslexics.
We met Rob and Sarah in the town square at 2pm and went for a coffee/hot chocolate. It was great to see them. I have only seen Rob a handful of times in the UK as we live so far away, so the hour or so that we had in Christchurch was more time than we've had together, like, forever. We chatted about our NZ experiences and shared stories. Rob and Sarah have been here since September and are backpacking using a bus service to take them round the country.
We agreed to meet them again in the evening at the free 'Christmas in the park' concert that was in the town park. In the meantime we went to eat our sandwiches and then Carol wandered around the town sights while me and Meg had a look at trees and flowers in the Botanical garden, which was pretty.








The 'Christmas in the park' is a big event in Christchurch, and they expected about 100,000 people there, although it didn't feel as busy as that. It was nice to see such a family-orientated event, as everyone turned out with their kids, and everyone was having picnics everywhere.



Carol treated us to a 3 course takeaway meal, with each course coming from a different food stall – chips for starter, then whitebait/houmous pitta for main, followed by mini doughnuts. When we met up with Rob and Sarah, it started to get a bit cold and the teenagers were out in force, making it feel a bit like a funfair in the UK, so we decided to go grab a beer in town. Me and Rob enjoyed talking football and found a pub serving English-style bitters, so we were happy for an hour or so. We had to get the bus back to New Brighton so Rob and Sarah walked us back to the bus exchange and we said our goodbyes. We will definitely see them again in NZ as they are here til March, so we'll keep in touch about their whereabouts.



On Sunday, our plan was to drive up the east coast to Kaikoura. We firstly had to stop off at a library to use the internet as Carol had to book her flights from Christchurch and Meg did some shopping at the supermarket. The New Brighton library was ace, as it had a whole row of comfy chairs facing the wall, but each chair had its own window that looked out onto the beach where there were loads of surfers and you could just sit and watch the waves roll in.
On the way to Kaikoura, we drove through more wine country and stopped at a railway station to have our lunch. As we started to arrive in Kaikoura, we saw more and more people looking out to sea, so we stopped to see what the fuss was. We saw loads of seals, who were just relaxing on the rocks and chilling out.

In Kaikoura, we had a look at a few campsites and compared cabins and prices. We ended up choosing the one with a swimming and spa pool, which we all made use of in the evening. Carol has an underwater camera which provided fun for all.

The plan for Monday was for Carol and Meg to go whale-watching, as this is the main activity in Kaikoura. Unfortunately the weather meant that the sea was too choppy for anyone to go out to sea, so we had to ditch that activity. We hope to have another go when my folks are here next month.
After using skype to talk to Meg's sister, we had a drive out to another Seal colony at the end of the peninsula. We have definitely seen enough seals now to last a long time!



Carol then had a look around the town's galleries, while I went to try out some fresh seafood (and Meg watched) at famous little takeaway place on the road to the seal colony. They were cooking whole crayfish, which looked delicious, but was quite expensive, so I had some fresh scallops instead. I have never had scallops before, and they are...ok. They come in 2 pieces, one that is nice and meaty, and the other is really mushy, which is a bit less nice.



As the whale-watching was cancelled for the day, it meant we could get further up the east coast than we thought. So rather than stopping in Blenheim or Picton, we managed to get all the way to Nelson, where we camped at Tahuna beach. The weather was still pretty rotten here, so we just sorted out our dinner and played some more cards for the evening.

The campsite wasn't particularly nice, so we got off early in the morning, and headed into Nelson city. We had a walk to the cathedral, which was interesting as it had been rebuilt in the 50's and was quite different to the usual design. We had lunch in the grounds of the cathedral, and then continued on our way towards the Abel Tasman national park.

Me and Meg visited Abel Tasman a few weeks ago, so we knew how beautiful the area was, and Carol was eager to see the park. We drove all the way to Marahau, which is the southern tip of the park, and me and Meg went to explore the pubs while Carol relaxed at the campsite – an old hippy farm with Alpaca's and cows. After a few drinks, me and Meg hitched back to the campsite (the first hitch-hiking we've done!) and then went out for some dinner with Carol at the Park Cafe – which marks one end of the Abel Tasman coastal track. Carol kindly treated us to the meal, which we all appreciated.

On Wednesday the plan was to get out into the park so Carol could see the park for herself. It is possible to do some kayaking on the sea, but we wouldn't have got very far in just a few hours, so we decided to get a water taxi and explore that way. We all got a water taxi from Kaiteriteri, and me and Meg got dropped off at Bark Bay and walked back to Anchorage – this is part of the coastal track. We have considered doing this track in the past, but now that we've seen it, we are quite happy that we haven't forked out the money for it. It is actually very similar to the Queen Charlotte track as it runs parallel to the coast and goes through similar bush. The beaches are picture-perfect, but annoyingly our camera ran out of battery just after we started....
For part of this walk we were able to walk across a low-tidal beach, which was quite an experience. It became apparent that Meg has an uncontrollable fear of crabs. And the beach, or rather, sea-floor (as it has been under the sea only an hour previously), was clearly very much alive with movement and you could see hundreds of crabs quickly scurrying into their holes only a few metres ahead of you. As we had to remove our boots and socks and walk over barefoot (as there were lots of little streams to wander through) this led to Meg's running/dancing across the bay, quite clearly in distress at the possible nipping of these tiny crabs that were obviously out to get her. When we were nearly over (and it was nearly a kilometre to cross the bay), the ground was getting very soggy and our feet were sinking into the sand/mud mixture about a couple of inches at each step. Meg was close to tears, so I managed to get her to the side of the bay where we dried our feet and put back on our socks and boots and managed to do the last hundred metres in our boots. She was very happy to reach the other side.
While we had been doing this walk, Carol had been getting a full scenic boat ride up and down the coast, to see the whole park from the sea. I think she really enjoyed it, but the weather was quickly coming in, so that when we all met up at Anchorage the rain started and we had to wait for about an hour under some shelter for our final water taxi to take us back to Kaiteriteri.

Once back in Salvador, we drove for half an hour to Mapua, where we stayed for the night. In the summer season, this campsite is a nudist camp, so we unfortunately timed our stay so that we missed out on that....
Me and Meg managed to do some swimming in the pool and then used the campsite sauna – a real treat.
Carol cooked steak for us in the evening, so we all felt very relaxed by the time we got to bed.

We knew we had a long drive the next day, as we had decided to go all the way to Hanmer Springs, where we were going to stay for 2 days and relax at the hot pools there.
We set off from Mapua at 11am and drove for a couple of hours to Murchison where we stopped so that Carol could look at the museum (me and Meg had visited a few weeks earlier and liked it), and prepare lunch. Annoyingly, the sandflies were out in force so we couldn't eat outside, we had to eat in Salvador.
From there it was a good drive to Hanmer Springs as we went over the Lewis Pass. We stopped at a rest area near the top of the pass where we had heard about some natural hot springs – Sylvia Flat - next to the river. We had to walk along the riverside for about 100metres, and were surprised to come across another person there, a guy just hanging out in his birthday suit.... he was relaxing in a hot pool beside the river with a beer in one hand and enjoying the amazing view of the southern alps. He certainly had the right idea and it would be a fantastic place to just be alone and relaxed, but I don't think he was expecting 3 other people to stumble upon his moment. We politely said hello and carried on further upstream where we found another small hot pool so showed Carol the bubbles of hot air heating the water. It wasn't really big enough to sit in, so we headed back to Salvador. The man in the other hot pool kindly offered to make space for us in his pool, but I'm not sure how keen Carol was to get cosy with him....

From there it was a short drive to Hanmer. We had a look at the hot springs resort, which is the main attraction in the town, and then had a look at a few campsites before finding one with a lovely cabin for Carol – it even had her own kitchen area and was a lot cheaper than others we had seen. Meg cooked curry while me and Carol watched Coronation St.

Today we are planning to do some mountain biking – the campsite has given us some free mountain bikes, and then we'll chill out at the hot springs.