An awesome piece of engineering!!!

When we woke this morning it was to the sound of hailstones and lashing rain!!! A bit of a change.

We headed south out of Graymouth and drove down to the Treetop walk near Hokitika. An opportunity to walk through the temperate rain forest tree canopy, along the steel walkways 20 metres high. There was plenty of bird song, but weren't able to capture any shots.

We retraced our route and stopped off in Hokitika and found a fish and chip shop near the mouth of the river. We stopped here 6 years ago and they have the tastiest fish and chips in the world!!! And possibly the cheapest. For the equivalent of £3.25, there was enough for the two of us!!! Even the gulls gave their sign of approval as they waited for any leftovers. I got some cracking shots of the gulls which I will post in FlickR when I get my act together!!

The weather has varied from sunshine to lashing rain and then dry again in a matter of minutes!!

We are now aiming for Christchurch and took the road through Arthur's Pass, more stunning scenery!! The Otira viaduct is part of the route and is an amazing structure. A pull off point allows you to get a view of it from a height. We are staying in the village for the night and as we arrived the Tranzalpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch pulled in to the station. I got some misty shots as I stood in the lashing rain. I'm sure the driver thought I was mad!!!

I had been assured by many people that I would see Kea and planned one of them as my blip for today, but they must have more sense than me and they took shelter to stay dry!!

New Zealanders and people who are familiar with the country are possibly wondering why we are not travelling further south. We were here in 2008 and spent almost 3 weeks touring south of Christchurch, so our loop this time is the northern third of South Island before we move on to North Island. In ideal times we would have extended this trip and visited all the beautiful places again!!