Today was very much a travel day so not too much to report. The highway turns inland for much of the trip between Greymouth and Haast passing through the towns of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier village. Both are very much tourist towns with many souvenir shops and cafés. Lots of tour buses coming and going. As one approaches Franz Josef, the large mountains making up the spine of the South Island suddenly pop into view. They are significantly higher than the mo...

We had a very busy day today, traveling along the west coast highway. After leaving Westport, we stopped off at the fur seal colony at Cape Foul Winds. Didn't see too many seals but the day had started off with clear skies and no wind so it was looking like we were going to have a great day. The west coast of the South Island has to rank amongst the most beautiful places in the world. Every turn in the road presented more and more beautiful views. Reid Fowler had...

After I published yesterday's update, Jean and I decided to go for dinner at a great little Thai restaurant. On our way there, a siren sounded and shortly thereafter a fire truck went by us. We got to where the firehall was and another fire truck left the hall, then a third. Sitting in the restaurant we saw 7 more fire trucks go by and then a hazmat truck. An 11th fire truck went by but it was parked at the firehall when we went back to the caravan park. We could...

Today we booked a trip to Abel Tasman National Park to go for a walk along the track which runs along the shore. The weather was overcast with some rain when we started but managed to stay relatively dry for the day. We were picked up by bus at 8:30am and taken to Kaiteriteri where we caught the marine shuttle and went up the coast to Totoranui and the back down to Torrent Bay where we got off the ferry and hiked about 8km to Medland Bay. It was a wonderful hike ...