New Zealand

---

It was still raining when we got up, but I was determined to go and see the seal colony just around the corner at Cape Fowlwind (so far the place was living up to its name!) We set off later than usual in the hope that things would clear up, but when they didn’t we gave up and accepted we were going to get cold and wet.

The walk to see the seals took about ten minutes and by the time we arrived, the rain had eased off to a slight drizzle. From the raised platforms, we had a perfect view over the rocks. There were seals of all shapes and sizes, included pups. We were so high up that they weren’t even aware of us. We took so many photos and watched them for ages. Some sat very still, others hopped around the rocks exploring and calling out, and the small pups stayed close to their mums. I could have stayed there all day watching them without getting bored, but eventually we had to move on.

When we came off the track we walked on the beach which was windswept and empty apart from some driftwood and shells. It provided us with some beautiful photos. The pieces of wood, roots and logs would have made excellent still life painting material, and I could see lots of potential for some mix media work with the dark coloured sand and shells. It’s such a shame that we can’t carry anything like that back with us.

To warm up we went into the Bay House Café which was just along the beach. We’re now both addicted to bowls of coffee (thanks for introducing us to that Phil!) so I had a bowl of soya milk latte and Matt had his usual Moccacino. It was divine after being out in the cold rain for so long. It was such a cute little café (originally owned by a surfer who was good at baking and then decided to turn it into a café when the local surfers kept asking for more cakes) that we decided to have a bite to eat there too - the white chocolate ice cream that came with my slice of cheesecake was really delicious!

We got back on the road and travelled down the coast for the rest of the afternoon. It was a long drive for Matt all the way south to Franz Josef, but we made it by early evening.

After checking into the village motor park, we settled into reading through the mass of leaflets about trips available. After much debating we decided to both do the half day ice trek the following morning that went up the face of the Franz Josef Glacier.

---