February 17:  Happy Birthday Savyon! We checked into the Duke Backpackers Hotel in Greymouth owned and operated by a young couple from TelAviv! It is clean, convenient, and very friendly. When we came back from dinner, we had a chance to Skype with Kate, Sapir and Savyon just before the girls started their school day yesterday. Savyon will have 21 friends at home for her official party on Friday. Good luck, Kate!! We spent some time this morning with Garth Wilson at his studio. Buzz learned a great deal of good information about carving greenstone (I think that means some new machinery when we get home), and I got some new jewelry. The road took us north with a stop for a walk up to the Cape Foulwind lighthouse. Fortunately the breeze was mild. We had our picnic at the rest area at the base of the trail before moving on to Westport where we booked a room in Murchison for the night. The road to Murchison is along the Buller River through the Buller Gorge...a beautiful drive.  

February 18:  Our room at the Hampden Hotel in Murchison was lovely. We had a meal and a handle of beer in the hotel restaurant and settled in for the evening. There was no fridge in our room, but the owner of the hotel was kind enough to put our perishables in the chiller where they keep the kegs of beer! This morning we drove to one of our favorite spots, Lake Rotoiti, at St Arnaud. The first time we visited this spot (1973) was on a crystal clear day. Today was overcast, but no less lovely. On our way north we took a road we had not been on before through the Golden Downs Forest. It is so interesting to see the areas that have been cleared and replanted alongside the stands of mature trees. We arrived in Nelson late afternoon and have settled in to the Riverlodge Motel. We 'll have a look around the city tomorrow morning and then head to Blenheim.  

February 19:  We had a look around Nelson and then got on the road. When we got to the Pelorus River Bridge, we stopped for a short walk. The trail went through the beautiful bush to Totara Flat. We took some photos and were on our way. At Havelock we turned onto the Queen Charlotte Drive and drove along the sound to Picton and the south to Blenheim. Our accommodation in Blenheim is a small cottage at the Tresco B&B. We will leave our car here tomorrow night when we set out for the Molesworth Station tour tomorrow and return on Friday.

February 20: Today was the first day of our tour of the Molesworth Station in the high country of the northern part of the South Island. We chose the Molesworth Tour company and were not disappointed. There were four other travelers on the trip with us. Our driver/guide, Trevor, was outstanding. He was like the encyclopedia of the region and told us everything we could possibly want to know about the history, geography, flora and fauna of this 180,000 hectare ( 450,000 acres) station which has a complicated history of ownership. The road is for four wheel drive vehicles only. We traveled from Blenheim (8:00 am) through the Awatere valley to Hanmer Springs (5:30pm) where we will spend the night. The land is stark and looks unforgiving. We stopped to have morning tea with a farmer at his shearing shed where got a lesson in grading Merino wool and had a lovely tea. We had a picnic lunch farther along the way and then on to Hanmer springs. After checking in to our motel, Buzz and I went to have have a soak in Hanmer's famous hot pools. It is a huge complex of mineral pools of varying temperatures...delightful. We had a lovely dinner with our group, and agreed to leave by 8:30 tomorrow morning.

21 February: Day two did not disappoint. One of the best features of this tour is that Buzz can really relax and enjoy the scenery because he doesn't have to do the driving. The road on this portion of the trip is much rougher than yesterday...a great deal of rocky gravel and many river fords. Trevor is an amazing driver in addition to his encyclopedic knowledge. We traveled along the Clarence River to Lake Tennyson where we had morning tea. The lake was like a mirror, and I was able to take some wonderful photos. We stopped at the St. James homestead and were transported back to the late 1800s. On we went through the area called Hell's Gate...the road is testament to the name...and stopped at Coldwater Crek for lunch. Later in the afternoon, we stopped for an opportunity to scramble down a hill and cross a swing bridge. I opted out!! Buzz did the hill, but declined the walk across the bridge. We got back to Blenheim around 5:30, said our good byes to Trevor and our fellow travelers and settled back in to the Tresco.

22 February: We had a lovely breakfast with our host, Ian, at the B&B and headed for Picton and the ferry back to Wellington. We arrived about 7:00PM in Birchville to a warm welcome and dinner waiting for us at the home of our good friends Phyllis and Darcy Ross. We spent the evening catching up before getting a good night's sleep.

23 February: Happy Birthday, Robyn! I really should just rest today having had a baby 39 years ago, but I did our laundry this morning and got it on the line before we set out for the day. We were going to Skype with the kids at home, but I got the days confused. We called Robyn instead. At noon, we met my young cousin Morgan Alperin at the Upper Hutt train station for a day in the country. Morgan, a student at Western Connecticut university, is having a semester of study at Victoria University in Wellington. We haven't seen her since she was about 10 or 11. We took her north to the Mount Bruce wildlife conservation center. We had a terrific day together and got to see a brown kiwi bird, a white kiwi bird, tuataras, and several birds including the daily feeding of the Kakas. These birds do not live in the sanctuary, but come in every day at 3:PM for feeding time. We took Morgan back to her dorm in Wellington and were back in Birchville in time for clothes folding, dinner and catching up this blog. Tomorrow we will spend the day with Darcy and. Phyllis before heading north on Tuesday.