Day 15 Up to the north coast

Had a good natter with our host Nolene over breakfast: as well as running the lodge she was a nurse and farmed 4,000 ewes. A tough old bird if ever there was one.

Today's destination was Motueka, gateway to the Abel Tasman national park. First couple of hours took us along the Buller river gorge. Stopped to take photos every now and again. The main event en route was the longest swing bridge in New Zealand - with a span of about 120metres. I walked across the 12inch wide bridge, swaying with the other visitors. A death slide was set up for the return journey and for a few $ more one could return by chair or face down horizontally in a harness. This was the closest to superman I'd be likely to experience……Annelise waited patiently to take video footage and lost a pint of blood to the sandflies.

Passed through a couple of one street towns before arriving at Motueka. Sun was shining…proper lazy heat at last. Booked up some kayaking and trips to the park and then headed for internet café. The town had a nice traveler feel to it: with lots of cool tanned young bohemian vagrant types , we fitted right in..…..called in at internet café to upload the blog and left to find our digs: Fraser Highlands.

Our hosts Jim and Sue had met in the 60s working for BA. Jim was some kind of born again Scot who had built his castle on a hill top above the surrounding countryside, St Andrew flags, swords, bagpipes, parapets and all. Sue originated from Blackpool and liked to chat. We opted for the cottage at the top of the drive, settled in a headed off to Marahau for dinner at Hooked . Looked over the water towards the mountains over Nelson and caught a lovely sunset. Tucked into blue nose (meaty local fish) and local lamb, washed down with Macs bitter and a Marlborough PN. Despite all the Pinot Noir experience, Annelise couldn't distinguish it from the central Otago brews.