Hi guys!
After we last reported in we carried on with our journey southbound. Next stop after Nelson was Golden Bay. Here we participated in a number of new hobbies and activities. First stop was the salmon fishing. We turned out to be very successful fisherwomen (despite Libby's initial effort resulting only in a "caught" rucksack), and I proudly became the cause of poor Soloman's murder. We were proud of this achievement (the kind people nearby committed the murder for us, weilding a very sharp knife), but were soon urged back to the lakeside by the gutters, and Sophie caught Sammy. This time no sidekicks were on offer to finish off the job, and Libby heroically did the deed with her wooden baton.
Needless to say, half an hour later we were tucking into the poor fish, prepared by the people on site for us. It was very nice salmon.
Next stop were the Pupu Springs - the biggest freshwater springs in Australasia, and the clearest in the world, second only (reportedly) to some in the Antarctica. We admired the clarity for a while before hitting the road for a monster five hour drive to Kaikoura.

We awoke to find ourselves in the midst of dense fog, which cleared all of a sudden when we reached the edge of the valley. We did a long walk to the seal colony (who looked distinctly unimpressed to see us). The following day we went on a whale watching tour, where we saw four sperm whales. I found this a little disappointing, hoping the whales would leap out the water and over the boat, much in the style of Free Willy, but all we saw was a spout and a tail. We were lucky to see four however, along with wandering albatross and some more seals. After the boat ride we headed along to Hanmer Springs, a couple of hours drive along the icy slopes of the mountains.

After a little confusion about parking on arrival we found a friendly British couple caravanning through the country. They were able to solve our problems, and also enlightened us about the deliciously warm springs nearby. Needless to say, we spent our evening here wallowing in the warm water. Returning to our cold campervan (currently having a few issues with an inability to power lights or heating, and insisting on making clicking noises throughout the night), we swiftly relocated to the warm fire of the local pub.

Next stop was Greymouth, a grey town at the mouth of a grey river (ironically, called Grey River-ha!). We saw little of this, as it was raining in a grey manner on both our arrival and departure, and the majority of the time inbetween. It was here that Jerry, our irish unreliable but mostly trusty GPS died in a dramatic final moment.

We moved on the Franz-Josef the following day, spending a couple of days at the glacier, again spending most of the evening in pubs and other establishments offering fireplaces. I won a hot chocolate on my bet for "how long it will take to trek to the glacier", getting there and back in record time. We followed these on with the Fox Glacier and a distant view of Mount Cook (for Libby's benefit). We are now in Wanaka. When it rains in Wanaka, Wanaka doesnt get wet, the rain gets Wanaka'd

Much love,
Elinor, Sophie and Libby
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