Haast

As we were saying before we were so rudely interupted by lack of coins yesterday. E&K arrived in Haast. The trip as usual had taken all day , there is always plenty to do along the way. Often the DOC has built a sturdy wooden pathway covered in chicken net to a waterfall or lake of impressive beauty. Sometimes only 5 minutes, sometimes much longer. The blue pools were very beautiful. Over a swing bridge and through the woods to a rushing river so clear you can see the stones on the bottom and pools an amazing colour of blue. Our friends pushed on to Haast beach which is a motel, maybe a petrol station and a store which shut down a few months ago. The lady wanted $65 a night so there was no need to haggle. No micro and the hot plate is a contraption which they have never seen before. E remembers the type of bread knife from her childhood. But most things are clean. A short walk to the beach and that day was over. During the night it rained thundered, blew and stormed but it was warm and cosy inside. The next day started off misty so E just took a morning walk of an hour but arrived back in blue skies and sunshine. Drove to Jacksons bay which is as far as the road goes. This part of the country is on the world heritage list and is lush rainforest. The landslides had mostly been cleared away so K was able to enjoy fresh fish and chips while watching the dolphins in the bay. Today started with rain and continued with rain so an interesting visit to the information centre took a while and the local restaurant had a long queue so that took time. Computor takes time too as it is slow and is impossible to get pictures into, as most of the computors in this country. Mobile phones do not work, E's last contact with the outside world was a text which would have been at 2 in the morning on new years day when it was sent from Sweden. 

We forgot to mention the cinema in Wanaka which is world famous. The seating is mostly old sofas or car seats, if you prefere you can sit in an old car. The carrot cake in the cafe is better than E's (an admission not made lightly) the double chocolate cookie is out of this world and K became addicted to the ginger and white chocolate. The films were good too.  
Tomorrow the road continues north to the Franz Josef glacier. That is if it is open. If it keeps raining it will be closed as it is already flooded. So watch this space for more excitement.