On the Road Again

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We partly chose Fox over the bigger busier Franz-Joseph glacier because of its proximity to Lake Matheson - the mirror lake that we has heard was fantastic to run around. Apparently this is best done at 6am but after the previous day's glacier hiking we allowed ourselves a 7am alarm first. The run was lovely (although rather more undulating than expected) but unfortunately we didn't see the full still mirror effect. Too much wind.

Today we had a bit of a mission on to get right up the west coast to Nelson Lakes. The 380 km didn't seem too bad until you factored in the 25km/h bends and god knows how many one lane bridges. We also had a bit of a camera problem - our battery had died and we forgot the charger. Luckily we found a converter in Greymouth after a failed attempt at an electrical store (but a very good pork and plum pie) in Hokitika. We also bought some plastic plates and glasses to replace the lost ones. So don't feel to aggrieved for us...

By the time we arrived at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and blowholes we were getting short on time so we legged it round past the other tourists taking a few quick pics along the way. Murchison was our only other stop (for diesel and a much needed Hokey-Pokey Mighty Memphis - like a magnum but sooo much tastier). We finally arrived at St Arnaud. Of all the campsites this was to be the most basic and rural. A DOC (department of conservation) site which is a good base for hiking but with only basic facilities. We were fine with the idea of this and had stocked up with food at the Greymouth New World supermarket (probably like Tesco over here but it feels far less like feeding the capitalist machine). What we weren't prepared for was to be eaten alive by mozzies. Also, the site that was allocated to us was taken so we had to squeeze in next to a large party of Brits. We had a lovely evening chatting to a German and a Kiwi guy in the kitchen (mostly debating about renewable energy, sat nav and cruise control) but we had already vowed that we would not be staying another night as planned. We would head off to some midge-free civilisation in Nelson city tomorrow instead...

Nelson was not entirely mozzie-free but a whole lot better than the lakes. We pottered around the city looking for a potential restaurant before settling on heading back to camp for yet another BBQ. We did find another great wine/oil/vinegar etc place en route though and their smoked garlic vinegar sauce was perfect with pork steaks and our Wooing Tree 'blondie' pinot noir.

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