A clear but cool morning, with everything soggy underfoot.   We get away by 7:45am and head for the hills; literally.  Still cloaked in cloud and mist, the hills, the paddocks and the bush-clad road cuttings are green, green, green and luscious. The odd splash of autumn colour, pops the the green of the bush as one tree stands out.   We are following the Buller River.   It is a really big river, in size and volume and even more so today after the heavy rains.  Very swift and really boisterous as it carries quite a bit of debris down as it pushes its way down to the Tasman Sea.  
A gradual climb into the gorge and the river turns quite dirty brown, from upstream flooding.  The tannin laden water, from a tributary, mixes with the brown, dirty Buller;  an unusual sight.   Beautiful valleys, with high hills right beside us as we get higher and higher with many 25km/hr snaking turns.   We vary from driving low, beside the river, to climbing high above it.   The road makers certainly had their job cut out for them, carving their way through this rock, to form a road.  At Hawks Crag there is an amazing overhang of solid rock, and the road is only one lane.  Bill could have easily reached out and touched the cliff face, without stretching.  You can see in the photo where the drill marks are horizontal.   Tough work
Every now and then we would round a bend and be taken by surprise as the road opened up into the most beautiful valleys.   We had to do some u-turns a couple of times to take photos!   
At Kohatu we turn left at the junction, to follow the Motueka River through the beautiful Motueka Valley.  This part of our trip has been amazing.  Visual overload, sun, blue sky, no traffic to speak of, crisp, clean air with mountains and hills kitted out in their finest of colours!    Magic!
And then the lovely Motueka.  I have been here once, about 25 years ago.  It was lovely then, as now!