Our early Saturday morning ferry from Wellington to Picton was fairly uneventful. The high winds from the previous day had mostly subsided, but the ride itself was still pretty rocky. When we arrived on the South Island, we headed for Nelson and spent the afternoon at the Founders Brewery. It was an organic brewery (the first in NZ) with a great cafe for lunch so we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed a nice, warm November afternoon. For $10, we sampled 6 different beers. Mark was pretty happy. We eventually pulled ourselves away from our lazy afternoon and headed on to Kaiteriteri, a small beach town on the Tasman Bay, near the boundary of Abel Tasman National Park. We had a nice beach walk at low tide and had an early night.

Sunday morning, we got up and decided to kayak along the coastal boundary of the National Park. We woke up to a gorgeous, sunny and still morning - one of the nicest they'd seen in days. This area is rich in wildlife and one of the best places to kayak on the south island. We loaded into a very nice double kayak and set out onto the open seas! Our goal was to reach Split Apple Rock, about a 40 minute paddle along the beach, and head for some limestone caves further down the coast once the tide was higher. We were really lucky in our 2 hours of sea kayaking; we first saw a seal swimming in the water just ahead of us, fishing. Then, we found ourselves in the middle of a feeding frenzy - a huge flock of birds was flying overhead and diving into the water around us, and dozens of HUGE kingfish were jumping out of the water and swimming close to the surface. I was very glad we were sitting into our kayak so that no fish could jump into the boat with us! Eventually they moved on and we went on our way.

After our morning paddle, we spent the day lounging on the golden sand beach, reading and relaxing. This is the first place since Auckland we've spent more than one night so it was nice to take the day to breathe. There was a couple in a Rocket Van camping behind us the night before and Mark noticed the guy wearing a UW shirt. We had a chat with them and found out they were from Guelph! It was crazy running into people from that close to home, and camping in the same vehicle as us! They had been in Christchurch for the last year in teachers college and were vacationing before heading home. Small world.

Monday morning brought moody skies and our cue to start heading south. After a quick stop at another craft brewery on our way out of town (The Wizard Monkey Brewery!), we kept driving until we hit the Owen Junction and stopped to visit New Zealand's longest swingbridge. (Just like the old swinging bridge in Croswell!) It was a wire bridge that spans the Buller Gorge - gorgeous red rocks and a rapid white water river. Once we made it across the bridge, we spent an hour wandering the forested paths on the other side of the river. It was a pretty rainy day so we were all geared-up. The forest was so green and lush - and muddy - but it was a really nice walk.

We headed on to Westport and found the Tauranga Bay Seal colony. By then, the rain had let up but a heavy fog had rolled in. We walked the path, hoping there would be some seals around and when we got to the look out spot they weren't immediately visible. But the more you watched, the more you could see. They blend in really well with the rocks and were enjoying an afternoon nap, but would occasionally flip their fins and tails so you could see them through the haze. So cute! One or two got up and moved, one even went for a swim, but for the most part, they just laid around.

We drove a bit further through the thick fog and landed in Punakaiki for the night. Mark is doing an amazing job with the driving and kept it together in thick fog on very winding mountain roads. We woke up this morning to an amazing surprise - the sun was out, the fog had lifted and we were camping with our backs to some HUGE rocky cliffs. Stunning! At the suggestion of a couple people in Kaiteriteri, we set out to do some local hiking trails. We walked the short Truman Track first, a 20 minute walk to a deserted beach carved into the limestone cliffs by erosion. The erosion left some hollowed out caves and fun rocks to climb. We were hoping to see some of the elusive blue penguins, but did not. The beach was gorgeous though.

Our next hike was along a river in town through a beautiful gorge in the rocks. The river was calm and winding and we walked through a forest that is the closest thing to a jungle that I've ever seen. All the old trees had vines and plants winding around their trunks so that the entire forest looked green and felt alive.

We also checked out the Pancake rocks and blowholes - some interesting rock formations formed by erosion that look like stacks of pancakes. Then we continued our journey south. We arrived at the Franz Josef glacier in the afternoon and hiked along the path to the face of the glacier (or as close as they would let us go). (ps - the picture is taken along this walk - can you spot a wee little Mark?) You can join a guided tour and hike up onto the glacier, but after our crazy Chile volcano hike, we feel like we can skip this one and just appreciate it from afar. The hike up to the glacier was cool, though, and brought you through the glacial field, an open rocky expanse where the glacier used to lie.

We arrived at the Fox glacier tonight and decided to hike up to it's face in the morning. We're camping tonight just outside the small Fox Glacier village, in the shadows of some pretty impressive mountains. You can supposedly see Mt Tasman, Mt Cook and the Fox Glacier from here, but I'm not yet sure which is which. Tomorrow, we continue to head south, hoping to make it to Queenstown and spend a night or two there.