Us being us and them being them our scheduled leaving time of 5pm was more like 6:30 by the time we had met up with Tom and Rachel and got going towards Arthurs Pass and the West Coast. We soon realised that what with all the photo stops, general slowness of our vans getting up hills and the small problem of nightfall that we were not going to make it all the way to Arthurs Pass before it got dark so we set a more realistic goal of finding a decent free camp site and setting up there for the night. We finally rolled into a camping area around 9:30pm. It was pitch black so us armed with only our head torches set about cooking us some food. This swiftly turned to Katie and Rachel preparing the food whilst me and Tom knocked back a few birthday ales! With both camping stoves blazing away it was not long before we sat down to a delicious meal of pasta and vegetables with additional chorizo for me and Tom! Once the main course had been despatched (which didn't take too long) Katie disappeared for a minute and returned with a birthday cake complete with sparkling candles. A rousing chorus of happy birthday ensued from the others and we set about eating the cake by head torch light in a wooden three sided building complete with a babbling brook in the background and a rather curious possum with very heavy footsteps on the roof.Daybreak the next day brought bright sunshine and an onslaught of sandflies. Needless to say we didn't spend too long before hitting the road and taking in more of the breathtaking scenery. Every bend in the road revealed more picture postcard views. There were long downhill sections through valleys and steep switchback roads climbing to the top of the passes.. A quick stop at one of the handily signposted lookouts gave us a rare opportunity to see the Kea which is the New Zealand alpine parrot (beautiful plumage!) A few photos snapped and we were on our way again. A brief stop over on the coast in Greymouth around lunchtime found us making and eating our lunch on a windswept deserted beach sitting in deckchairs hunkered down in a small dip to avoid the wind blowing the lunch out of our hands. How stereotypically English!After our hunger had been sated we set off to Punakaiki to check out the Pancake rocks…