Hello everyone!!! Sorry we haven't updated our blog for a while - we have been so busy the past few weeks, and seen so much (and done so much driving!) that we have neglected the blog. It may take a while to get our photos up, as we have taken so many and we are struggling to find a decent internet connection, so you may have to wait a bit longer for those. At the moment we are in Australia, but we will keep you informed on what we got up to on the South Island of New Zealand.

We began our South Island trip by getting the ferry from Wellington to Picton, which took us through the lovely Queen Charlotte Sound on the way in. We picked up our hire car to start our journey cross country to the west coast. It took a good four hours, but it was a lovely drive and the scenery was great. We arrived at Westport first, a small coal mining town and drove to the beach to take in the views and get some fresh air. We continued our drive down the coast the next day, which was spectacular! We drove from Westport to Hokitika along the coastal road, which hugged the coastline, just like Big Sur in California (but without the fog!). The rugged beached and jutting rocks, contrasting with the rainforest on the other side, was really special. It was one of our overall highlights of our New Zealand trip. The weather was great, though the tide was out when we arrived at Pancake Rocks, an unusual rock formation that looks like a stack of pancakes. When the tide is in the water hits the rocks and through the cracks in the rocks the spray gushes up into the air. We didn't get to see this unfortunately, but the coastline was so nice it didn't really matter.

We drove through Greymouth (not far from where the recent coal mining tragedy took place), and had an ice cream at the train station, where the TranzAlpine train was waiting to pick up its passengers for the day. The train is a scenic way to cross the country from Greymouth to Christchurch, and takes 4 hours, offering amazing views of the Alps on its way across. Maybe if we come back to New Zealand we will try that journey!

Hokitika was to be our final stop of the day, a pretty little beach town with nice restaurants and galleries. We stayed in a beach side cabin for the night, which also had a mini farm outside with Alpacas just outside our room! It was just a minute walk to the beach, so we did some paddling in the sea during the afternoon and then headed back in the evening to see the gorgeous sunset. Freezing cold, but worth it!!