Sand, Snow and Seals

Did you ever notice that from a distance sheep look like maggots? Something I couldn't stop thinking as we began our drive this morning. Little maggotts in the hills...

Most of today's drive was along the eastern coast of the south island. I never knew before but they have black sand. I mean seriously black. I can't imagine swimming of the coast, everything would come out dirty.

As we drove, we were often able to see both snow-capped mountains and the ocean. Made for quite an interesting sight.

Passed a few seal colonies on our trip too, they are so cute. I think I like them more than dolphins.

Another interesting point, the towns on the south island have (for the most part) more English sounding names than the Maori ones on the north island.

As we passed through Rakautara (all 3 buildings of it) we bought a fresh (yet cooked) crayfish from a hut on the side of the road that was later eaten for lunch. Well by dad at least.

In Kaikoura (famous for its whale watching) we stopped at the chemist for a new supply of motion sickness tablets and a bit of souvenir shopping (and a bit of brekky). Its was the largest town we had seen for a while and is well-known because it is the part of NZ where the mountains are closest to the sea. Hard to explain, but the backdrop is awesome. The mountains had a dusting of snow (which apparently isn't too common) and the sun came out on occasion.

Lunch was eaten just near the "Hurunui River" crossing. Not much to say about the river but it was flowing very fast and looked very very cold.

Final stop of the day was in Christchurch. Which is where I am now. We have found a caravan park with an email kiosk (which is exactly where I am) and the NZ pay tv "sky". Which means, we should be able to watch the state of origin. We will be able to watch it live too (9:30 kickoff over here) which is a bonus.

So what's our plan now? If the weather clears up tomorrow we will head inland over Arthurs Pass to Greymouth on the west coast then head from there south to the glaciers and then Queenstown. If the weather remains nasty, we well head south from here to Dunedin and then over to Queenstown, possibly missing the glaciers all together, maybe driving up from Queenstown to see them.

Either way, we will be getting to Queenstown at some point over the next few days and from there I should be able to blog again. As far as specific plans go, everything depends on the weather but worst case, we will just ski instead. Which is a pretty good worst case

Hope all is well back in Australia and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nanna who turns 70 tomorrow. Sorry we can't be there but we wich you all the best.

GO THE MAROONS!!!