We have had three days in a town on the West Coast called Hokitika, our first night was spent in a brilliant hostel right on the beach. It was so homely I even had my first cup of tea in two months and enjoyed it! Unfortunately our brains had to rule our hearts and we moved to a different hostel in town which allowed us to go way under budget, it showed though and it was probably the worst and dirtiest of the trip luckily we've had fantastic weather so it was just used as a bed!

We've found lots of amazing places, but most need a car to access so it looks like another holiday to New Zealand will be on the cards in the future so for the three days we spent a lot of time on the beach. The coastline here is very rugged and wild with the waves to go with it. Yesterday we found a lone seal on the beach, I was worried for it so we kept coming back to check on him! A group of school kids scared him back into the water but in no time at all he was back on the beach. As we sat back at a distance watching him it was amazing how many people didn't notice the seal was there until the last minute with all the driftwood on the beach at a glance he looked like just another piece of wood.

This morning we came down on to the beach and the seal was gone hopefully he has found his way. Next came the invention of our new extreme sport "waving running" the official rules are yet to be devised but it goes something like running down the beach at the wave until you can "touch" it and just as it is breaking turn and run from it not allowing the water to catch you! With the size of waves it was kind of scary but we spent hours playing and got pretty wet in the process! We took some pictures and from looking at us in them we've come up with our slogan "you can't be unhappy wave running!" It's also a great beach for finding some really nice stones and pebbles; I ended up with full, heavy pockets with the amount I collected whereas Olof is always in search of the perfect one!

After the sheer rain we had in Fox it was nice to have a few days spent outside just enjoying the place we're at but I'm sure the rain will soon catch up with us again.