Since Scott left, we've sort of been referring to time as 'Part III - New Zealand'. We had part I before he arrived, II while he was here and now we're in part III. The third part will cover some of New Zealand's most spectacular scenery (sorry Scott:( ) and I plan to take several hundred, if not thousand, photos. If you look in the photo albums for January 14, 15, 16 and 17 you'll see quite a few of these already taken.

I've started using another new format for the photo albums. The web development software I use, Dreamweaver, has a built-in photo album feature, but it quit working after a few times. I have gone back to using Jalbum, but changed the format. If you have any comments regarding either, feel free to email me and let me know.

After Scott left, we spent a day in Christchurch getting caught up on business (email, banking, travel plans, etc.) and then met up with our friend Fiona we had met in Rarotonga. She invited us to stay at her apartment and we ate the most amazing Burmese food at The Bodhi Tree, in a local neighborhood that reminded me so much of Hawthorne St. it was scary! Over dinner, Val and Fiona started talking about the International Busker's Festival (A festival of street performers) coming to Christchurch next week. Val knew about it, but had forgotten about the dates. It didn't really work into our schedule to stay in Christchurch for a week, so we improvised and changed our plans (hey, that's what it's all about) and decided to do an east coast-west coast-east coast loop and to cross two of the three passes across the Southern Alps. This would take a few days and let us see parts we wanted to see later on anyway.

We left Fiona's on Saturday morning as she headed north to Kaikoura for The Roots Festival. We left ourselves one last option for a change and decided to check 'Trade-Me' (the Kiwi equivalent to E-Bay) to see if there were any tickets available for a reasonable price. Notta!!! Cheapest tickets were nearly $300 each. A little over our budget to see bands we've never heard of.

So, we headed out towards Arthur's Pass, the most picturesque of the three according to the guide books. They didn't disappoint! One digression ... on our way to the mountains, we called Fiona to let her know we weren't coming to Kaikoura. She was just about to walk into the festival and said there was someone selling 2 tickets face value (plus the service charge they paid). By now we were over 100 miles away and heading in the opposite direction. Oh well, we'll catch the next festival in a few weeks.

As we headed west, we crossed the Canterbury Plains. A wide expanse of fertile farm land that ends at the base of the Southern Alps. The mountains are like a wall in front of you as you approach. We began the climb and came to the first of many spectacular sights. The Kura Tawhiti Conservation Area. From a distance it looks like someone had a rock fight and there are little stones laying all over some grassy meadows. As you approach, you realize some of these stones are over 100 feet tall! There were climbers abseiling off of the tallest ones.

We hiked through these for a while and took numerous photos before we headed out to find a camp site for the evening.

We eventually stopped right at the DOC (Department of Conservation) Information Station where there was a campground that due to technical reasons wasn't manned, but we were welcome to stay anyway! Cool! It was a beautiful evening and we got some nice late afternoon photos. Unfortunately, around midnight the wind started up and it was nasty. Gusts up over 50 mph, which felt like they could tip our campervan over. Then about 3:00 a.m. it started to pour down rain. By the time we got up in the morning, most of the rain had passed, but there were 6" deep puddles all around us. What a mess! We decided to hold off hiking til we come back through later on.

We ate breakfast headed towards the coast and the town of Greymouth. Little did we realize that this was the best part of the drive. The scenery is spectacular, but the road itself is amazing. There are slides and waterfalls everywhere that had been washing out the road for over a century when the Kiwis decided to find a better solution. The Viaduct as they call it is an elevated highway that snakes through the mountains and has areas that are covered to avoid erosion from water falls and land slides. It's very impressive and it took us a long time to travel it because we kept stopping for photos:)

We finally arrived in Greymouth and planned our next day. A visit to the Monteith's Brewery. Monteith's makes good beer by New Zealand standards, and has been brewing here since the 1800's. It has undergone a few name changes, and most recently was bought by DB Brewery. This is a huge conglomerate of breweries, and generally they brew very average beer. They have apparently left Monteith's to brew for themselves for the most part and have simply supplied their muscle for marketing and distribution. We'll see how long that lasts:( The tour was great, and afterwards we got to taste beers for a while until our tour guide made a mistake and left us alone in the bar for a while without beer. (Mark Campbell ... does this sound familiar?) Since val had the most experience, she took up the post as bartender and poured us all a round! Cheers!!! One more detail ... there were only three of us on the tour. The other guy was a magician from New York who was here for the Busker's Festival in Christchurch. They had flown him to New Zealand and he had a week to kill before the festival started. Magic Brian ... we'll look for him later on at the festival.

After a few rounds of 4.0 beer, we headed out the door for the 120 km (75 miles +/-) drive to Westport. This drive wound up taking nearly 4 hours. Again, more photo opportunities. About halfway there, there is a stretch of coast called Punakaiki where they have what are know as the 'pancake rocks'. All I can say is check out these photos!

We finally arrived in Westport and settled in for the evening. In the morning we got up early and hiked to Cape Foulwind. I'm sure you can guess why it's called that. To our surprise and delight, it was a beautiful morning with no wind. There is a female seal colony here as well and there were lots of young pups around.

After our hike we headed over to Miners Brewery for a tour. It turns out the guidebook is a bit outdated and they don't give brewery tours any more. The brewer did pour us a few samples and we talked for about half an hour while we drank. They are still an independent brewer, the only one on the west coast of the South Island. The beer was typical New Zealand beer, but we did get a 2 litre bottle of the dark to take with us ($6.95NZ = $4.90US).

We left Westport and headed east again. This time across the Lewis Pass. This is the lowest, and least spectacular of the three according to the guidebooks. They were right, but it's all relative. While not very high and spectacular, it was an amazing drive! Flat top bluffs, high plains, sheer cliffs with vegetation right out to the edge, but not a leaf on the vertical face.

We've stopped for the night at a place called Hanmer Springs. It's a bit of a resort town with public thermal pools in the center of town. We plan to do a nice hike in the morning and then soak our weary bones for a few hours before hitting the road back to Christchurch tomorrow evening so we can see the first day of the Busker's Festival on Thursday.

Until next time, check out the photos!,

Eric & Val