The rain had cleared when we awoke. When we opened our advent calendar we discovered a drum under window number 10. Despite the ravenous sand flies we had enjoyed being back at Franz Josef. The town has a lovely vibe. After brekky though it was time to leave. It was still very cloudy but as we left a small break in the clouds formed and we got our final glimpse of the beautiful snow capped peaks. We headed north and back towards Hokitika. On the way we stopped at...

We decided to stay another night at Murchison. The camp site was good and we liked the camp site dog, a really cute black Scottie with the whitest teeth we have ever seen. After brekky we drove just a short distance down the road to the Matakitaki Scenic Reserve to go on the Skyline Track. It was a fairly steep path that started in some woodland by the car park. We followed the path as it wound it's way through the trees until we emerged just under two kilometres...

We had another lovely peaceful night and having not bumped into any strange ***** in the showers this morning all was good. We had decided to go and explore more of the South Island today so after brekky we went to say goodbye to the friendly animals. Billy and the sheep were very happy to see us again. The sheep came bounding over all excited when they saw us and Billy was desperately trying to eat Jay's fleece. Molly was fast asleep grunting and snorting away. ...