Howdy folks! Greetings from Westport!

Since our last installment we have covered quite a lot of ground and are now up near the north west of the South Island in Westport for some relaxation! Well we ended up leaving Dunedin earlier than expected as the area near the beach where we were going to camp was not the nicest - Cowgate by the sea is what Frankie named it! So we decided to head up the road to the Mount Cook national park for some hiking and nice fresh mountain air! When we arrived at the camp site the weather was not great but just as the sun was setting it cleared out a bit and we got some great views of Mount Cook in the distance. We woke up the next day to rain, oh no! But decided to go up the mountain and do the walk we had intended anyway up the hooker valley, even though there was a lot of cloud we still saw some great scenery - lots of glacial streams where the water looks like milk because of all the ice particles, weird! Also we could see the Tasman glacier winding its way down the valley, very spectacular! Once at the top of the walk there was a small lake that all the glacier melt water flowed into and there were big chunks of ice floating around everywhere! It really was beautiful up there its just a shame there was a lot of low cloud and mist so we couldnt really see Mount Cook in all its glory. Well like a couple of drowned rats we started to make our way back down the valley and what happens?? The sun comes out! typical! Never mind though it made for some nice views on the way back down and it didnt last for long - we just made it back to the camp site before more torrential rain!

From Mount Cook we wanted to head to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers which are just on the other side of Mount Cook, probably about 50km as the crow flies from where we camped... however as there is a dirty great big moutain range in between you have to drive south then back out to the west coast then north again - for EIGHT HOURS!!!!! Crazy! We decided to break up the drive with a night in Haast on the west coast, as they say in Italy whata mistaka to maka!!! Man, that had to be the worst decision of the trip, to start with Haast is a bit of a hole with nothing really there except a camp site, a backpackers, a cafe and a shop, thats it. Oh except for the 2 million sandflies that took up residence inside our van for the night! Frankie and I woke up the next morning to multiple bites all over our feet, legs and arms, not nice! That had to be the quickest we ate breakfast and left a campsite, i think we were up and out in about 20 mins, no showers or anything, we were right mingers that day!!

From Haast we travelled the remaining distance up to the Fox Glacier where we walked up to the bottom of the Glacier where you get fantastic views up at the ice. We were going to do ice climbing but the weather forecast wasnt great and we were both knackered (and covered in bites and minging) so we decided againt it and just went on the gentle walks at Fox and Franz Josef instead. Both were excellent, but kind of scary as when you're driving up the road towards them there are signs dotted along the road saying "in 1750 the glacier was here, In 1934.... " etc etc. and believe me they have retreated a heck of a long way!

After doing the walks we decided we were in need of a few nights of luxury so treated ourselves to a few nights in a motel, not 5 star by any means but there was a real bed and a TV! Heaven! Although the first night we spent in Greymouth the motel room was not the best and seemed to have a strange smell of onions!? the day after we drove to Westport where we checked into a far nicer Motel and had a very lazy day watching movies! Yesterday we went out and about in Westport for a bit but the weather has not been great, lots of rain, so again we just headed back to the motel for more movies! Being Valentines Day yesterday I treated Frankie to my world famous chilli con carne last night (although it was chicken and not mince - very nice all the same though) with a bottle of NZ's finest red wine!

So thats it so far, we are going to head up to Nelson today and from there are hoping to do some activities (hiking, kayaking) in the Abel Tasman National Park which is supposed to be amazing, it all depends on the weather however as the forecast is not great for the weekend. We've also just booked 2 tickets for the final one day cricket international in Christchurch between NZ and England, maybe not the best idea given the last 2 results but nevermind should be a good laugh anyway!

Well take care everyone, not long till we're back to see everyone, less than a month now... oh my god reality looms!

All the best,

Chris and Frankie