9/10 January - Moved on to Motueka - by passing Nelson as it was competely manic.

Went to see the Rikawa Resurgance which was the start of the Rikawa river. The water was very clear emerging from the rocks. We then started to look for another famous springs - the Waikoropupu Springs. We spotted a sign post that we thought would be a short cut across the Kahurangi National Park. After about 6 km we came across a sign post saying that the next 10 km would be windy and narrow but we thought we'd carry on anyway. This road was extremely narrow with very few passing places and sheer drop offs - the only good thing about it was that it was a sealed road. Eventually we came to a power station and thought things would now get better. How wrong we were! There was a sign saying that you continue along the road at your own risk but we didn't want to go back the way that we had just come so we carried on............ However, the road was also narrow, windy and unsealed and really only suitable for 4 wheel drive cars. We trundled on slowly for 18 kms scraping the sump a few times and bumping the exhaust on the rocky track. Eventually we saw some cars in the distance and thought we'd soon find a proper road. Pat stopped and spoke to some people who were returning to their cars and asked for directions out. Guess what? The only way out was the way we had just come!!!! We can laugh about it now but it wasn't very funny at the time - we had a very quiet return journey! We got back in one piece and the car fortunately still had its exhaust.

We did eventually find the Waikoropupu Springs that have the purest and cleanest water in the world. The water was indeed crystal clear and we saw the source of the springs bubbling up. We carried on to Golden Bay although time there was rather limited as we'd already had our major detour!

11 January - Got water taxi to Anchorage Bay. The walk back from there was through the bush and took us about 5 hours. It was a beautiful day and we had a few stop offs along the way in the lovely bays.