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 We
caught the cargo ship to South Island, arriving in Picton
on the ship's Bridge. After a cold night's sleep in a field
we drove through the Buller River Gorge on our way
to the west coast. The Buller River is the biggest river that
any of us had ever seen. Definitely the most impressive views
we had seen so far on the trip. We had a good evening surf
at Fox River, after which Craig and Ric gave the Kiwis a lesson
in how to play pool. The next morning Steve accidentally smashed
the car window, just as we were heading down to see the cold
stuff.
 The
whole of the West coast of the South Island is spectacular.
With big cliffs and mountains flanking the road nearly the
entire way to Queenstown, the scenery is breathtaking. The
Franz-Josef and Fox Glaciers were magic. Not only did we enjoy
climbing about on the glaciers themselves, but we had a great
time watching some Keas eating a bus and some cars in the
Fox Glacier car park.
We
spent the next night in Haast, where we met Kerry and Mitch.
Kerry was from the same town in Scotland as Ric. Small world
or what! After
half an hour in Queenstown, we drove to Dunedin, where we
met Guy while we were out surfing. We stayed with Guy,
Meredith and Erin for a week in their beautiful hill-top
house. We had a lot of fun in Dunedin, drinking, surfing,
and having some good laughs in the house in the evenings.
Ric's readings from Irvine Welsh's "The Acid House"
seemed to go down particularly well-especially after a few
beers.
 After
leaving Dunedin we had an excellent surf at Kahoutura on the
way to Redwood Valley, where we stayed with Tony and Pat.
Tony and Pat must have one of the best views in the world
from their back porch. They put us up for a couple of nights,
and Tony taught us all how to press Olives. After a hair raising
drive back to Picton we only just caught the ship back to
North Island. Peter gave us a brilliant tour of the engine
room during the crossing. If only everyone loved their job
as much as him.
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