That morning at Punakaiki we went to see the famous Pancake Rocks and took more endless photos. The west coast is rugged and impressive and the surf pounding through these bizarre ancient rock formations was really interesting.

Another long drive took us through some distinctly "Lord" type ranges and the Japanese tourist level of photography continued. On to Nelson, where we thought we were going to stay but which neither of us really liked. Not sure what to do or where to go and being constrained by time, we opted for somewhere close to Picton as we'd be getting back on the ferry in the morning.

I rang the Blue Moon backpackers in Havelock to be told they had a "motorhome" we could sleep in. Hostel gold once more! A very quaint one-cow town which triumphantly lorded itself as The Green Shelled Mussel Capital of the World, Havelock was a great stopover. Dave and Shirley's Dreamcatcher awaited us in the garden of the hostel and Shirley proudly showed us our quarters. In a state of apparent un-finished-ness it suited us down to the ground but we did have to stifle giggles.

That night Dave was guiding a walk, for anyone that wanted to go, up into the forest above the town to see a huge bank of glow-worms he had discovered there....and an eel that he enjoyed feeding meat to. mmmmmm. We were obviously intrigued and after some wines and a lovely dinner met the others in the kitchen as darkness fell. We wore our walking boots too! Wohoo! Wearing caving headlights, we went up into the wood and were simply entranced to see we were surrounded by thousands of tiny green lights! Faeries surely!!! It was so amazing and Dave explained the whole life cycle of what is just a humble moth larvae.

He then took us to a tiny pool in the stream further up the hill and took out a sausage! We all shone our night (red) lights this time and as our eyes adjusted we could see an eel come out from under a rock and nibble on his sausage! It was so eerie but wonderful to be standing in this glowing faerie glen watching an obviously delighted man feeding an eel. Another classic New Zealand moment.

The next morning we bombed back to Picton and returned the car to Colin and jumped on the ferry just as it was leaving. The weather had really set in in the Cook Strait and the crossing was rather buffet-y to say the least. I had to stand on the deck the whole time as i was feeling a bit green and scanned the horizon for you-know-whats to keep my mind off chundering! Amazingly, an absolutely huge pod of Dusky Dolphins swam at full speed right up to and past the boat. Oh my god. Dolphins EVERY DAY of the trip! Is that really possible?

So there was only one word for our trip. AWESOME!

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