Yea, the camera's working! Good thing, because there were lots of photo opportunities today. Plus Bob is feeling much better; the meds worked!

We worked up our courage and crossed NZ's longest swinging bridge. The scariest part of the crossing was when you'd meet someone coming from the other direction and you'd have to pass each other.

There was an interesting hiking trail on the other side which led down to the Buller River and then past the earthquake fault. A quake here in 1929 registered 7.8 on the Richter Scale and resulted in an uplift of 4 meters. We visited an old gold miner's cottage and sluice; there is still gold left for panning. Other attractions offered were a jet boat ride and and a zip-line, but we'd had enough excitement crossing the swinging bridge TWICE. One man told me that he considered just staying over there.

Our route continued to follow the Buller River and through the Buller Gorge, known as the top of the West Coast. Came to the Lyell Settlement which is a gold mining ghost town.  

Turned onto Lower Buller Gorge Rd. Here the river became much wider and the area is very lush. The steep hillsides are packed tightly with different kinds of trees, and any space between the trees is filled with wildflowers and ferns. At Kilkenny Lookout we could see Hawk's Craig, where the road becomes one twisty lane cut into the cliff. The overhang is so low that buses must be very careful not to hit the top. Uranium was discovered near here.

We went into the town of Westport to do some shopping and to get our first view of the Tasman Sea on the West Coast. Then we drove to Carter's Beach to check into our campground. We have a nice site set in the back of the park. To take advantage of the sunshine we hurried down the coast to a walkway which led to an overlook of the Seal Colony that gave our campground its name. This walkway started at Cape Foulwind which was named by Captain Cook in 1770 after he spent two miserable days there in a furious storm. He was actually the second explorer to name it; Abel Tasman named it Rocky Point in 1642.   

We didn't have lunch today so we fixed a great supper of pork chops, broccoli, cauliflower and corn on the cob. The fresh vegetables and fruits and wonderful. The showers here were the best we've had so far on the trip.