Unbeknown to us today was to be a day of mountain to beach, to bush to mountain, a real day of contrasts.

Firstly thank you Jacksons Retreat for the use of your barn placing our motor-home out of last night's strong wind guaranteeing us a restful night free from thundering (torrential) rain on the roof and the van shaking in the winds. Even in shelter the sound was tremendous, not sure how the other Van-ners got on though, we slept peacefully on our own in the spacious undercover area.

We woke to a fabulous day, bright blue sky and mild. We headed out for Franz-Josef Glacier, stopping in deserted Kumara for a coffee to go and deciding to detour via the replica Gold Diggers Shantytown to see - or only begin to imagine more like - how life was in the late 1870's. Startling how we recognised some of the dental equipment (eeek and ouch), were amused by the Quackery Prevention Bill of 1907 to control the selling of medicines and saddened by the appalling photographs at conditions for in the Seaview Mental Hospital for Faulty Patients (1910).

On then to Greymouth - which wasn't grey at all as Billy Connelly said on his tour of NZ, it was beautiful! Needs a name change? Errands done we re-traced our drive en route for the glacier but made sure to stop of at the adjacent coast which had given us tantalising glimpses of wild sea all the way up.

Oh wow, it was WILD! Very strong onshore winds whipped up sea foam on the shore, bleached driftwood decorated and a gravel path ran invitingly alongside the apparent endless beach begging to be cycled, jogged or walked. Oh if only we had the time to do that with the sound of the crashing waves, the blue sky overhead and the wind tempered by the shelter of bushes and flowers. That's for the next visit! Incidentally the record for ship-wrecks on this bit of coast between 1865 & 1867 is 35 ships lost on the offshore sand-bar.....

As we drove towards our destination there was a clear line of cloud and rain over the mountains which stopped where the flatter coastal lands met the foothills and ensured that our drive was in beautiful blue sunshine. The journey was on good roads, some winding, some dead straight but we crossed many bridges of all shapes and sizes over creeks, rivers and larger estuaries. Some bridges so narrow that we breathed in as we crossed, some took two lanes of traffic, some - rather worryingly - had train tracks down the middle! The rivers and estuaries were usually smallish flows of water in much wider sand flats - indications of spring snow melt.

Road side sign: 'Children in sport don't end up in court'.

We've noted many references to Prime Minister Thomas Seddon who on the face of it seems to have been quite a welfare reformer - providing you were not Maori or Chinese!

En route we stopped at Whataroa to visit a Maori Arts Centre where beautiful jade, wood and bone carvings, were on display and some for sale. Dave bought me (Shirley) a Pounamu (nephrite jade) Pikoura (twist) necklace. The Pounamu is believed by Maori's to absorb the 'mana' or spiritual power of its wearer through the oil of their skin - through generations - and that part of the spirit of the carver is bound in the piece. The Pounamu is considered to be a treasure, the jade is sacred and the Pikoura symbolises infinity - the bonding of two lives together for eternity. The seller wished me a long and happy life and hoped that I would get much pleasure from wearing it. Ahhhhhh!

After that 'spiritual and romantic moment' we popped over the road to the Dairy (Deery) aka snack bar / corner shop selling greezies (fast food snacks, typically pies) for a coffee before setting off on the last short leg of our journey to the glacier!

And how amazed were we to arrive at the Rainforest Retreat park at Franz-Josef village in mild warm sunshine, a bush rather than mountain setting, the camp is fabulous and we are parked 'in our very own bit of bush'. Spag bol for dinner for David, Scallops pan fried in butter for Shirley, perfect end to an amazing day J