46S 168E

The journey to South Island has been amazing for the beautiful dramatic scenery and until the past few days good weather . We are now based at Invercargill a decaying Victorian town sheltering from a large low which crossed the country today with winds of 50knt . Glad we are in a hotel and not afloat . We spent the afternoon at Bluff Cove which is a small fishing town watching the boats rock and toss .

So far since leaving Whangarie we have driven the length of both islands , crossing the Cook Strait by ferry and spending time on the Marlborough sounds with Peter George .After a night in Blenheim we decided to drive the lonely Moldsworth track across the montains to Hamner Springs . This was 200ml of gravel track climbing to 3000ftand crosses the largest and most isolated farm in NZ . Spectacular with deep ravines and a single width track ,only saw two other vehicles.

Then the west coat via Greymouth to the Fox Glacier ang on to Queens Town to watch the bungy jumping and visit Milford Sound by coach . This is when the weather deteriorated but still huge waterfalls falling 2000ft into the fiord . This is a dangerous drive with many accidents; the road was closed by one such on the day we went .

We will now head north via Dunedin and Christchurch to Nelson in the south by the end of the month.