Wendy kindly organised this 10 day trip down the West coast of the south island. We got up at a sparrows fart and took the inter island ferry to Picton where we picked up a hire car
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| Goodbye Wellington |
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| Hello Picton |
We drove to St Arnaud where we had a lovely chalet overlooking beautiful countryside. My evening on the terrace quickly reminded me of my favourite insect - the sand fly - they infest the south island and are particularly partial to me. The last time I was here I was dressed from head to foot and they got up inside my trouser legs and bit around the top of each sock - the bites itched for 6 months! So now regardless of the very warm weather I am dressed from head to foot and armed with aunty stan (Anthisan to those pharmacists amongst us - Paula!) an effective anthihistamine which I take alongside my usual tablets. My knuckles and neck are itching as we speak as I can't bring myself to wear gloves and scarf in 26 degree heat!
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Ignore my midriff bulge - it's an optical illusion!
En route we stopped at a lovely lake and saw New Zealand long fin eels - they were huge
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| It's taken me ages to get this shot! |
From St Arnauds we drove to Greymouth via Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks) - what a magnificent sight
At Greymouth we had a bit of a shock as we were all sleeping in the same bedroom (not the end of the world as it was quite a large room) and sharing the bathroom with 3 other rooms - I don't ever remember having to do that before but we soldiered on,
particulary Denise who gets up at least twice a night to have a wee!
Greymouth lived up to it's name as we woke to high winds (outside, not inside the room!) torrential rain and the greyest sky ever. We drove to Hokitika where we did some shopping and went to Kiwi world for entertainment
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My photo of a Kiwi!
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| The centre's photo of a Kiwi! |
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| I caught this crayfish in their pond (then put it back of course) |
After a long, wet, miserable day we finally arrived at Franz Josef - we were hoping to see the glacier but all we could see was grey mist - oh dear..............
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