Day 23 Franz Josef 10.45 a.m and sitting on the bed writing the blog and listening to the news. Staying here for another day but weather is very grey, raining with low cloud unable to see the mountains this morning, hopefully it will clear up. Went up to the Glacier this afternoon along the Glacier View Road, most people tend to go to the car park and then walk from there, but not us . . . we walked only 5k though. The Glacier looked pretty dirty apparently cove...

Day 19 Punakaiki to Hokitikia (passing through Greymouth) 90k today with a few climbs travelling along the coastline and some inland stuff. Nice and flat into Hokitikia with good en-suite motel room, more expensive 80$ for the night. Quite crowded but everyone pretty friendly which is not always the case. Chatting to a group which included a nurse from Norway doing his second year in Austrailia and a Japanese girl who was trying to get a Spouse's Visa to join he...