It’s quiet on the other side, that’s kind of what we experienced. Started at the east coast in Christchurch and now arrived in west port at the west coast. The holiday season is over. Many vacancies at motels, hostels, b & b and campsites. For a moment we thought we were going to stand on a campground with two campers but after six there were 15! Still not much.

Woody parked neatly, snatched a picnic table and a walked to the beach. It’s about a 2 minute walk! A beautiful location where we can see the sun set.

I continue to amaze myself about the different landscapes which enriches New Zealand. Today we have seen the most beautiful transitions, mountains that plunges into the sea. Then again jungle-like pictures, beaches, big waves, rocks and we saw the pancake rocks.

Nicolas from Tahiti told us about these pancakes. How wonderful it is. We actually had no idea what he was talking about, and really thought the pancakes were the same kind of attraction as the Fergburgers in Queensland. He was a bit difficult to understand (he speaks frenglish)

Andrea drove the first part. She does that as if she never did anything else. She also takes the steep hairpin curves with great ease. Both up and downhill. Moments when you see the road before you disappear and then appear again. I wonder why woody uses so much fuel. We didn’t go that fast.

We stopped at several places to capture the beauty with are cameras. There won’t be a photo which wins a prize, but for me it is like a memory cards. I notice that I write a lot of what I see and experience to remember it. It seems my memory gets a bit short.

In the meantime I received an email from projects abroad. Fiji is coming closer and whether we have arranged everything and are ready for it. They asked if I already have a weblog which I sent to them. I will also be more or less separated from Andrea in Fiji. She will share a room with a South Korean. I have a room and bed for myself! Andrea is very relieved. She does not have to put plugs into her ears anymore.

The next morning I was running around early try to get the video of my skydive on Googledrive. (YouTube might have been better). Andrea turned around a few times. I found a PC so uploading would be easy? After Andrea crawled out of bed, I did the laundry and Andrea went looking for breakfast. We had no milk and no bread. Only a piece of cheese, salami and water and tea. By noon we had some food again. For diner we were going have Andrea’s all time favorite (wraps).

Later that day we drove to the seal colony and had a nice walk towards a lighthouse although we did got to the lighthouse itself. We enjoyed the surroundings and the rocks where seals had sought their salvation. Nicely at a distance we could watch them doing what they do, mainly nothing!

At 17:00 the campingsite was full again. Andrea had helped an Australian lady with signing up on an internet PC. Then some tips were exchanged about the southern and northern island. She made the NZ tour exactly the other way around. The evening we had a visit from two young ladies (5 and 8) who apparently enjoyed it with us. They kept chatting.

They were very surprised about why Andrea and I differ so much from skin color, as we are daughter and father. Andrea did her best to explain it.

I almost finished the book. The next day we have another long journey ahead of us, the Abel Tasman national park. Must also be sensational.