East Side!

So we continued our adventures through to the East Coast. Yeah! First stop was Napier where a bit of the old VD struck (VD being vague dissatisfaction not an STI). I went to the museum and Em read her book and then we ate apple and cheese on crackers. don't knock it til you've tried it! we stayed in a holiday park that night. there was a crazy man working there who said El Capitan didn't sound very healthy and that he could fix it. personally i didn't want a man who had one eye that looked in a different direction touching my baby! so we ran away :) went out to dinner in Napier with my friend sunny, who i haven't seen since forever, and her boyfriend. was the best thing about napier :) we went to lone star and ate heaps of yummy yummy food and em and sunny talked canada coz, small world that it is, sunny was born in saskatchewan too! crazy shit.
sunny said i had to write about her on my blog so there you go sunny! was great to see you :)

there was still a lot of crazy weather around the place on the east coast so we didn't hang around too much. cruised down to hastings where em had fruit picked in the past and went and scoped out her old house. went to see cape kidnappers and then hit the road towards gizzy - it really is as far away from everywhere as it looks!
the drive was quite rad really. a cool gorge to drive through. first thing that struck me about the area was that there were heaps of really cool trees around the place. oh god that makes me sound like a hippy! yeah but it'd be a good place to be a cow i reckon
it was quite late by the time we got to gizzy so just went for a quick walk and then went and sussed out some surf beaches out wainui bay way. of course, the surf was shit, but us being the eternal optimists that we are figured it could pick up in the morning! so we parked up right by the beach amongst some sand dunes for the night
BAD IDEA!!! that was the start of the WORST NIGHT IN THE VAN EVER!!! oh god it was so shit. so we had been in bed for all of 5mins when it starts raining. sweet. and then the wind picks up. and i mean picks up! it got so fricken windy that the van was shaking like you wouldn't believe! it was quite scary. and then our boards underneath were rattling around like no ones business. the old sleep brain was thinking we were gonna get blown over! we had been talking that day about maori legends for some reason and i was praying like nothing to the god of the wind (tu something) for the damn wind to stop so i could get some sleep! sooo sooo bad. em and i both woke up at midnightish and em uttered "kim are we in a hurricane?" nope we weren't but it damn near felt like it! she was thinking we were in the eye of the storm and were gonna get completely smashed. sooo sooo sleepy....
needless to say there was no surf in the morning. was still too damn windy anyway. we sort refuge in a coffee shop and then hightailed it outta there! yes gisbourne, i see your potential but the memories are not pleasant

shawn the prawn and other stories

hm, this is quite good as i can pretend i am still on fun adventures! and not back in blenheim already (sigh)
so on the monday after our weekend in the naki we decided to head eastwards - looked in our trusty road atlas and found a route which meant we could go a different way than we had come in. seemed like a good idea.... surely some alarm bells would've been raised when we went past signs saying that it was the "forgotten world highway" but apparently not... first part was sweet as. though we saw no other cars. then we passed a sign saying "please have passports ready. you are entering the republic of whangamomona" what the shit? we drove on. whangamomona is WIERD!!! we saw a total of 5 people when we stopped for a toilet break there... 2 workmen on the side of the road who were not actually working, 1 man in a house bus and his 2 kiddies running round. one of whom was called blaze. uh. drive on! freaky! it was real the hills have eyes stuff so we just continued on our journey - no stopping for us in this "forgotten world" i have never been so happy to see taumaranui in my life!
we continued on to taupo that day. unfortunately it wasn't a fantastic day so the lake was looking somewhat average but we went for a lovely walk and then went and found a mint as camp spot that was... wait for it... FREE!!! right next to the waikato river on huka falls road. i imagine it gets pretty crazy in summer but worth a look if you are passing through that way.

Next to the Waikato

during the night it rained considerably. (the first of the crazy weather) to the point that my in and out of sleep brain thought the river was going to rise and we would awake to find ourselves flying towards the huka falls! thankfully this was not the case :) for our morning in taupo we ventured northwards and went to the waiariki thermal park which is right next to the massive geothermal power pipes - steam rising out of the cracks - impressive! there was bugger all people at the park which suited us fine. we had a foot soak there, saw some impressive geysers, some sleeping (massive) kuni kuni pigs.. but the best bit was they are attempting to recreate a mini pink and white terraces. they have built the terraces and supplied the geyser and hopefuly the silica deposits will, over time, create a similar effect. quite cool. also went to this craters of the moon place which was less impressive but alright all the same. i had a burning desire to go to the prawn park for some reason but we had to hit the road... though on the way out i did get a brochure for it and was so disappointed we didn't go! the brochure was rad - there was this character 'shawn the prawn' who introduced everything - you can go eat prawns (of course), go feed the baby prawns who are in geothermal pools, even hit golf balls into the pools (and shawn says not to worry, this won't hurt the prawns) and the park is sunny 395 days of the year (did you seethat, hes being tricksy!) it looked hilarious! i wanted to go meet shawn! em found it amusing too but no one else has. please let me know if you think i am crazy. or go experience the coolness of the prawn park yourself!

Go Shawn the prawn!

the wacky naki

3 go wild in the wacky naki!

the weekend after northland we picked up lauren in auckland and then made our way southwards to the wacky naki (that is.. after a long procrastination over bought breakfast and coffee in parnell. ooo posh!)
stayed at laurens parents house who were soooo hospitable! we had some amazing meals... steak on friday when we arrived, cooked brekky on sunday, so many snacks of cheese etc.. and a ginormous pork roast on sunday night with lemon meringue pie for dessert!!! rad
on saturday we had some good chilling time at the house and then went out to tea with some of laurens friends. they had been at the races all day so turned up pretty pissed and entertaining! was a great dinner - cheap but really good venison sammies and some bottles of wine helped it along. after dinner we moved on to the classy classy grumpy mole (damn sarcasm doesn't work in writing does it?) one of the guys at dinner was a lion nathan rep so he bought us a round of his product and we proceeded to drink the night away whilst laughing at the late 90s/early 00s music vids - they know their audience thats for sure
got chatting to a bunch of liverpudlians who we kept banging in to during the night and one become rather attached to lauren. did a bit of boogie-ing but our night was cut short by stupid daylight savings! still it was 2am/3am by that stage so off home we went - only to find that laurens parents got home after us! shame!
there seems to be a recurring theme of our trip that sunday turns into a funday - as it should! went out to oakura to check out the surf... not happening - story of our lives!! so went for a walk along the stormy beach and played some impromptu cricket with a lemon and some driftwood! then we filled our hungover tummies with a gigantic plate of nachos and wedges in the local pub. they probably were wondering what had hit them as we spent the best part of 2hrs sitting there cracking up!!
sunday night was the epic meal and then we went to see 'step up' which is a dancy fun movie with a rather good looking lead male :) i recommend if you're after some shameless entertainment.

Lemon + stick = great fun!!

At Oakura Beach

so was our weekend in the wacky naki. i feel it revealed its wackyness to us. what did not reveal itself was the so called 'mountain'. em and i are sceptical as to whether it actually exists or not. hows that for a conspiracy?

so much to say...

We did it! All the way to the top - Cape Reinga

okay so i have lots of days/weeks to catch up on but will put them on here in bits and pieces so its more exciting (and not to boring for me)
NORTHLAND aka paradise! was our first stop after auckland. great to get out of the city. we had a week of fantastic fantastic sunshine and warmth. it was so hot sometimes i was actually losing my mind! went swimming heaps - personal fav at maitai bay on the karekare peninsula. there was no surf anywhere though :(

Maitai Bay aka... heaven! :)

had an epic epic day where we went all the way to the top baby! cape reinga is pretty spectacular and worth the drive for sure. as are the giant sand dunes. next time will have to remember to take a boogie board. nearly ran outta petrol (again) on the way back - thank god for 24hr services - at that petrol station we were also reduced to eating dried 2min noodles coz we wanted to get as far south as poss. they were surprisingly good :)

Te Paki Sand Dunes

also went to visit waipu which was em's hood over the summer. glorious glorious. cool waterfall there too - pirau falls. if it was a bit hotter would def have gone for a swim. as it was i did go in up to my knees, inadvertently that is. whoops!
cruised back down the west coast and went and saw tane mahuta. hes awesome (big kauri tree for those that don't know). plus stopped off at a couple of places that i had been to as a kid but not since (my mum was born in dargaville) kaiwi lakes were just as magic as i remembered, bayly's beach has had soooo much more development since i went there. but that seems to be the way its going eh?

em at the funky fish cafe at bayleys beach - chlax!

Pirau Falls

also went on 2 vehicle ferries - one in russell and one on the hokianga harbour. ooo ps... russell used to be known as "the hellhole of the pacific"and was quite the piratey haven. it is also the home of one of the coolest trees i have ever seen - imagine the things this puppy has seen!


had the most enthusiastic responses to the van in northland - a bunch of maori kids on the back of a ute waved and smiled at us. a hell bro dude saluted us. a wee girl (about 12yrs) ran across a field towards us waving and laughing and in wellsford em got hounded by a (white) bro who then asked for her number and when she refused said "well what about some tits then?" ?!?!?!?!? ahh.... does that work for you often dude??!!? we died laughing!
thats enough to keep you going i hope. more soon. :)

hobos go city

yeah yeah i suck! we are now in the north island! auckland in fact. the land of orcs itself. uh, just a quickie at the mo coz have to go out to tea. had a few days in welly - caught up with quite a few people which was great. went out and hit welly town on first night there. and i feel like we ate a bit of food. generally a safe assumption :) i know em was a little wary of how we would feel in a big city - being that we are hobos and all - but it was sweet eh. so big ups to welly and all the people we caught up with there!!
then we moved on to raglan where em's friend angelique came and met us. had some fantastic lazy days there - went for a coupla surfs even though the waves were pretty av. soooo much warmer than in kaiks though!! one day we got up, went for surf, and then spent the rest of the day lying in the back of anges van in the sunshine. good times :)

Ocean Beach at Raglan... beautiful!

El Capitan finds a friend... Ange's van Rodriguez

then we booted it up to auckland. staying at laurens flat which is very flash (cheers dude). went to beauty and the beast (the disney musical) on friday which was awesome. cool dancing and costumes and stuff. beauty was kinda annoying though. whiny.
and we went to the auckland zoo yesterday - animal fun! the elephants were rad - one gave itself a mud bath which kinda looked fun :) and then we went out last night - first to my friend janelles for some drinks and then to a party of some guy lauren knew and then in to town. was soooo random!! but heapsa fun and got to get our groove shoes on for a bit
tomorrow we are moving on up north - up to waipu tomorrow and then around there a bit. only a month left! and we have been on the road for 50+ days. woop woop!

2 monkeys hiding behind an elephant

See.. told you it looked fun!

Monkeys are rad

hey hey (its the hobos)

so we are now in golden bay! well nearly... currently in motueka. had some great days in blen with my ma and pa. ate some great food (cher mum!) had some great showers and spas and generally sorted our shit out. managed to catch up with my friend ingrid too which was rad. good luck for the job hunting ingy!
we also went down to our bach in the marlborough sounds on friday (went swimming - we're hardcore!) and then went out fishing (in the sounds again) on saturday. we caught a wee bit between us but my blue cod was the only edible one. still, a great day... esp coz we saw a gigantic pod of dolphins! we went and played with them and then they were swimming in the wake of the motor right behind the boat! like you could see the big grey masses under the water and if we'd had a large pole we totally would've been able to touch them!
this greatness continued on monday when we drove down to kaikoura and went for a walk with our icecreams on the beach when this lady starting yelling at us to look at something and we looked out at the sea and there was a WHALE!! woooooaaahh!! that NEVER happens. coolest thing ever eh. esp coz it was hardcore jumping right into the air and then it dived so we got the whole tail fluke thing too. there were a couple out there and you could see them spouting away. rad... i tell you the animal kingdom loves the van plan. we have had too many random occurences with them for it to be coincedence.

Beeeauuutiful!!! The view from the surf :)

Em & her board Charlie at Maungas

went for a surf in kaiks too. weellll... an extended paddle since we didn't actually catch anything but it was fun all the same. we rented booties too - genius! warm tootsies are great :) and also purchased a crayfish from the famous cays crays! i named him merv. he was delicious :)

Merv the crayfish

then drove to hamner and spent a whole morning (2hrs) in the thermal pools... mmmm.... and then took an extended drive to nelson area. on the way we nearly ran outta petrol!! haha!! got so freaked that when we were going down a big hill (not the hope saddle with those 35k corners) we turned the car off and cruised down!! hahaha!!! ah we can laugh about it now :) also stopped in at maruia falls which is the one all those crazy paddling people go off. the word - nuts - comes to mind....
are booked on the ferry to go to welly on saturday afternoon. prob a good thing coz i swear i could spent a whole month here alone! doesn't matter how much time you have its never enough.....
laters!

just some tales and phots from golden bay since i have otherwise missed it!...
we stayed at this gold little camping spot called mckees which is before mot. its something like $2 a person and has a fantastic view over towards nelson. heres a photo of em cooking brekky on the beach... a task we did at many fantastic locations!



our 1st proper day we decided to drive as far as we could and then make our way back. our initial plan was to go to abel tassie and maybe do some kayaking but that didn't happen. we'd both been there before anyway. never enough time!!! we battled over takaka hill - all without sounds as the stereo had eaten our cd - which led to a MAJOR case of vd (vague dissatisfaction) setting in. we went to pupu springs which just made it worse coz you can't touch the water!! do you know how tortuous it is seeing all that delicious clear water and not being able to touch it?!?!? eventually we got rid of the vd in the only way we knew how... we bought a 6pk and headed to the beach :) perfect! whilst there em practising her surfing pop up... i love this photo :)



stayed at pakawau that night and awoke to yet another beautiful day. it was so clear you could see over to farewell spit. that was a good day - we managed to fix the sounds! went to wharareki beach where there are sand dunes galore! unfortunately it was windy as hell at the beach and the sand felt like tiny razors hitting every available peace of skin! i battled on feeling like a desert explorer but em retired to the comfort of el capitan :)

Pakawau beach - looking towards Farewell Spit

we also stopped off at mapua - a wicked little seaside town with a definite hippy feel. while there we stumbled across an ice cream parlour called hamishs.... so you're in australia in the outback eh hamish? haha!!




captain jack also found a boat that he took a particular liking too. aarrgghh!! :)

so golden bay was rad. we both understood how people can go and never return. its a different pace and way of life for sure. we could've spent a lot more time there but it was time to venture onwards to the north island! cruised back through the queen charlotte drive, had a coffee in picton, and made our way across the strait on the blue bridge... which, by the way, kicks the interislanders ass!

The Coast baby!!

So now Em and I find ourselves on the wierd and wonderful West Coast. We pretty much booted it up the coast and are now in Karamea in the BEST backpackers ever! Its called Rongo and honestly, its worth coming to Karamea for - esp if you are hippie inclined (Jared I saw your writing on the wall - sweet!) Yea so we did the first day of the Heaphy yesterday and came back out today. Gold! Crazy crazy coastline with gigantic waves and heaps of nikau forests. We survived the so-called 5hrs sweet as - just have a few bruises. Oh and Em nearly fell over half a million times - and I thought I was the un-co one! Must be those paddle feet of hers :P (hehe! I love this coz she can't respond to my harassing!)
Before coming up here we went and did the glacier thing - were disappointed to find you can hardly walk close to Franz at all!! Way different than I remember - I'm not a stupid tourist!! So therefore I should be able to go closer. nevermind
had a grey yucky night in greymouth where we succumbed to the lures of the holiday park and a warm shower. did the monteiths tour the next morning - 10am - walked out an hr later considerably less sober. hehe!!
and spent the weekend in good ol westy! unfortunately my old flattie keri was in oz at the time but caught up with my friend kirsten who was nice enough to let us sleep in her spare room. FINALLY went for a surf - out at the tip - soooooo great!! felt fantastic to be back in the water. not even cold! em stood up but i didn't manage to - its been so long!! also managed to catch up with my friend guy who was back for uni hols and the twins mitch and kenny. we went out for some drinks with them on saturday night. the bustling night life of wp!! haha!!
right thats me - my book is calling. more soon - and photos in the next coupla days coz we're heading to Blen for a bit.
love yas!

A detailed post

so i've had comments from a couple of camps that i am being slack with this. so here is a comprehensive account of what we have been up to recently... this morning because the sun is now coming up earlier, we got up at approx 8.30. haha! nah not like that...
okay - will start with SNOWBOARDING
wooohooo!!! so we went up to cardrona on both tuesday and wednesday a couple of weeks back. fantastic weather! hired our boards off the mountain which meant we could get up there and get going. the first morning was sooooo frustrating! spent a lot of time on our asses - em got it at first better than i did. i was just sitting on the snow seething for quite a while :) at one point i was sooo close to going and renting some skis and ripping up the big slopes but stuck it out. i got my front edge first while em got the back. but neither of us were that great at stopping and my way seemed to be falling down the slope flat on my back! haha! the afternoon's aim was to get the opposite edge which for me meant i had to turn around as my unfit self was unable to stand up on my back edge! but eventually got that too so by the end of the day we were both doing falling leaf on both edges and getting a few clumsy turns on there
day two- ps.. we had sore muscle to the baddest!! which made the morning a bit owee as the muscles loosened up again. i also had the unfortunate occurence of my feet going numb when i was halfway down. potentially problematic. so todays aim was to get the turns going. we went back on the learners (magic carpet) which was quite good coz there was tonnes of lessons around us which we poached the ideas from. hehe! who says you have to pay? so mid morning we both had our front turns going (mine from front to back edge and em's the opposite) and were slowly getting the other turn. so befor lunch we decided to just do it and bust up the chair!! made it on to the chair alright - but getting off was a different story! briar had earlier told us that the best way was just to fall so thats exactly what we did! i like to think i was graceful :) that first chair run was very long... we both fell over multiple times but it was great! i even got some linking turns going.. woohoo!! styling! after lunch we went back up the chair - all in all about 5 times i think. in the end run i only fell over once! yeeaahhh!!
so conclusion... snowboarding = cool once you get it :)
ps... the biggest injury of the day was when em was putting her board back on the bus (which was driven by a cute pink pompom hat wearing boy) and didn't reverse before standing up so slammed her head.. hard.. on the storage lid thingy!! haha!! dumbass!!




right... moving on....
on thursday we cruised back to dunedin for em's grad. was a good weekend. caught up with some people and went to etrusco for em's grad dinner. good times. except... civilisation did not agree with either of us and we got colds. me esp bad. grrr!!! also em wanted to stay longer to spend some time with erwin (her boyfriend). that combined with crap weather on tuesday meant we didn't actually leave til wednesday - only leaving us a few days. still better than staying in the city. el capitan is not built for cities after all!

look how pretty we look :)

went into central via the pig route which means going over the kilmog's north and then busting inland from palmerston. real remote in there (the hills have eyes!) and there was quite a bit of snow around. we stayed that night in st bathans which is a very small town next to a cool blue lake - the result of gold sluicing back in the day. went for a wee walk around the lake with a random dog friend who was barking at the water - we thought he might have been able to see spirits in there - st bathans is known to be haunted. we slept in a potentially creepy site there where i had the worst sleep ever

em and jack the dog - is he barking at ghosts?

next day went and had a cuppa with johnny's dad snowy (johnny is em's old flatty who works at etrusco) who lives near st bathans. he gave us a porterhouse steak to take with us as well. awesome! we were both feeling quite blah so went to alex and wandered around. em tried to parallel park and ended up on the pavement! haha! then went to a random, and definitely freaky, campsite just outside of alex with semi-permanent looking caravans. the hills really do have eyes!!
had to head back to dunnos (again) the next day but went and looked at the clyde dam first and lake dunstan. another stunner of a day (we have been super lucky with the weather - only a wee bit of rain and cold). did an hrs walk of part of the otago rail trail too from alex. was so warm that we stripped down to t shirts! yeah! goodbye pasty arms! then drove back through central via middlemarch. question - who knew mosgiel was so big? they even have traffic lights!!

rail trail photos...

Still in Wanaka...

yip thats right - still here - due to varying circumstances... none of which are bad though! are planning on staying here til thursday too and going up the mountain before heading back to d-town for em's grad.
sooo.... went to puzzle world the other day and completed the maze in the amazing time of 23mins!! yeah!! i challenge anyone to beat that!
the last couple of days we've been hanging out in wanaka - em's boyfriend erwin came up for a few days from dunno's which meant we had to stay reasonably metro (he can't handle the complete outdoors!) i got the van to myself for 2 nights which was awesome - and woke up one morning to find frost INSIDE the van!! woah! crazy shit
but The Captain is usually great at catering to our night time requests - i'm sure the mountain of blankets we have helps - and i mean mountain :)
life as a hobo is interesting though - we have been getting 10hrs of sleep most nights. its amazing how the lack of artificial light makes you tired earlier. and we have been finding all kinds of things amusing - for instance we have started calling the footstep of the van 'the trough' for some reason - we chuck our shoes in the trough to keep the van clean, things sometimes fall in the trough when we drive... it bears no resemblance to a trough but has somehow gotten this name which we - and i think only we - find really amusing! it is the butt of many jokes
and then there is the constant quotes from the simpsons and anything else we can find. and our newfound hatred of people. we went to queenstown the other night for a bit and it freaked us out heaps! lotsa people and cars and... eeew!!! just not not cool at all!! whats with this metro lifestyle?
okay now i feel like i'm just blabbing so time to move on... next time will have amusing stories of snowboarding attempts. bring it on!
oh and if anyone has any questions then feel free :)

A week and a bit...

okay okay... i suck at putting stuff on the blog. promise i will when i have a bit more time. photos too! am now in wanaka for a couple of days... gonna go up the mountain next week sometime and try some snowboarding with em. should be interesting considering our co-ordination levels!
since we started we have been to stewart island for a couple of days where we did the first day of the rakiura track, then round the bottom of southland - colac bay and tuatapere - up to fiordland and milford and then came up to wanaka the day before yesterday. went to black seeds concert last night which was fricken cool! i recommend :)

monkey island in southland (monkey island! what they got there? apes - but they ain't so big

mountains over te wae wae bay in southland - we saw hectors dolphins on the other side

did the whole milford sound thing - pretty cool but i think some of the other stuff we have seen is almost better. esp coz theres been no other people there! lake hauroko in fiordland was awesome - super clear and pretty with snow mountains around.

obligatory milford photos...

the reflected mountains in mirror lake

little whirlys at the entrance to milford sound

hollyford valley

early morning at lake hauroko.. which is the deepest lake in nz at 438m. deeper than the sea level at which it sits!

haha! em's pirate shadow at lake hauroko

a robin friend from lake hauroko - we had the most epic meal here with our tuatapere sausages (its the sausage capital of nz!) and steamed veges in a makeshift tinfoil container on the one off grill. those things are gold!

lake monowai - fiordland

had a freaky incident when driving from there to te anau - at the end of a one way bridge there was a bunch of branches on the road and what looked like safety tape. em got out to have a look and discovered there was a dead cat under the branches and the tape was just toilet paper. a bit odd... i got out to help her and then a person started meowing from the bushes!! freaky shit!! we had moved the main branch and got the heebie jeebies so jumped back in the van and drove over the top of the remaining stuff. it gave us a bit of a fright so we stayed in te anau that night near people (not to mention the most fantastic bathroom ever!! we're talking heated floors and lights and mirrors and radios.... porcelain heaven!!)
The Captain is driving like a dream and we are becoming accustomed to his little tanty's that he sometimes throws. he drove in snow the other day too - at mavora lakes. yeah!
right gotta go - sunny outside and puzzle world is calling!!!
laters

hehe! our 'hobo to hot' photos! what a transformation!!!

It begins!

Heya friends! Well heres the first of hopefully many posts about the adventures me and Em get up to in our wicked phat van. First news is he has a name! Yip our van shall now be known as The Captain - or as I have recently been calling him - El Capitan! Woohoo! A slightly piratical theme due to the curtains being like sails and Capt Jack Sparrow watching over us from the dashboard. Good times :)
So I will post photos of the van on here soon for those who haven't seen it yet. And just to recap - Em and I bought a pimping van for the cool cool price of $1200. All kitted out with bed and kitchen stuff and all kinds of other goodies. Have since had it painted up with a custom paint job so it is very psychedelic now. (Thanks again Guy!) The plan is to drive around the country in our baby and see this beautiful country of ours before Em has to bugger off back to Canada (sniff) at the end of October. So if you are in the country let us know where and we will most likely drop in for a visit and shower and to do the laundry!
The van plan begun for real on Monday when we drove down to Invers with the thought of continuing on to Stewart Island the following day. Managed to get a bed for the night in Lisa's old flat (cheers Amy) and went off to Stewy the following morning on some wild seas. Pretty much just got off the ferry and walked the first day of the Rakiura Track from Halfmoon Bay to Port William. Was a good day - a bit rainy and I was slowly dying due to my complete loss of ability to walk up hills. I blame living in flat Westport! But we got there in the end - went for an ultra quick swim which I can say was refreshing in the least! And settled in to a night in the hut with our new found hunter friends. There were 4 of them - ranging from 16 to about 60. We played some crazy games of Hearts with them and drank their gin. Haha!
Ah shit this is turning into a short novel - surprise surprise - so just to wrap it up... walked back out from Port William yesterday, consumed lots of junk food, made friends with a random Swiss boy in our backpackers and met a crazy French man who had just walked the North West Circuit alone and hadn't talked to anyone in 7 days... and woke at the crazy hr of 6.30am to ferry back to Bluff. Have been messing round in Invers for the day and are heading over to Tuatapere now. Will write more soon...

Some photos of beautiful Stewart Island... if you get the chance to go there... DO!