Having had my bran flakes and checked out of the hostel, I headed for the nearby peninsula. As I pulled into the car park I very nearly ran over a seal, just lying there sunning himself, oblivious to the mayhem he was causing. The tide was out so I decided to wander down onto the rocks and out to the sea. Being the very sensible person that I am , I had flip flops (or jandals as they are known here) on and was having to watch my footing all the time - very wet, uneven and slippery. All of a sudden there was this noise, which was somewhere between a roar and a bark - I had practically tripped over a very large seal, who was not impressed at having his nap disturbed. I apologised profusely (not sure that he understood) and hurried off in the opposite direction having nearly pooped my pants!! Once I had made it back to the car without further incident, I headed out of town along the no 70 highway to pick up the no 7 across the country to the west coast, via the Lewis Pass. Everywhere I have driven here has been with breathtaking scenery, it would be all too easy to become blase. The weather was on my side and I made it across without any rain and headed to Westport on the coast - big disappointment!!!! Very ugly industrial town with a cement works between the town and the sea - oh well, win some lose some. I checked in to the Happy Wanderer Hostel and was impressed to enter a split level room with en-suite, kitchen and TV. There was one other girl in the room and so I dumped my stuff, said hi, put the TV on and began whipping up a gourmet feast (mashed carrot and parsnip). It was only about 1930 and the other girl asked me to turn the noise off. It wasn't exactly blaring and it was still early, so I turned it down and tried to stay out of her way from then on - I don't know how she would have coped if there had been the full complement of 6 in the room. She went early this morning with the hump and I carried on as normal, stripped the bed and went to check out. The owner asked me if the other girl was still in the room as she hadn't returned her key, to which I replied that she had left about an hour earlier. He then proceeded to comment on how strange she was - I had to agree - and he went on to tell me that she'd tried to run her boyfriend down the previous evening and it had taken 2 police officers to hold her down! Thanks for putting me in her room with no warning! When I went out to the car there were some police officers taking pictures and measuring the road and stuff, so maybe she just ran, who knows. So you see mother - I don't pick up hitch hikers, stay in female only dorms at hostels and I still get the weird maniacs. So today I'll be picking up everyone I see and sleeping by the side of the road - joking! So I left Westport and followed the no 6 highway down the coast - the views and scenery were amazing (I'm running out of adjectives, not that any of them are really up to the job). The Tasman coastline was rugged, with surf-pounded empty beaches right next to the road and green mountains to the other side.There was even a sign warning that there may be penguins in the road! En-route I stopped at Punakaiki and Paparoa National Park to look at Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. The limestone resembles stacks of thin pancakes and is created by weathering and layering - a process called stylobedding, for you geologists out there. The sea surges into caverns and squirts out of blowholes at the top, making quite a spectacle. I continued on my way down and have recently arrived in a tiny place called Franz Josef, which I will tell you all about tomorrow. Until then S xx