Karamea

Today we took a trip further up the west coast as far as you can go driving, to Karamea. Beautiful long desterted beaches apart from the odd Seal sunbathing in the surf. Not much else up here, a fairly isolated community!

Buller Gorge

For Roger's birthday treat we took a drive up Buller Gorge to the longest swingbridge in New Zealand. Despite some trepidation Lindsay managed the walk across and the zipwire back! Although it does look like our I'm a celebrity moment coming out of the jungle!

Westport and the west coast

Having been housed in a motel for most of this week as the original accomodation allocated to us was not habitable we have now moved to a very spaceous four bedroomed house just 5 minutes walk from the Health Centre. We have been exploring the locality over past few days from the rugged rocky coastline and beaches to the Punakaiki pancake rocks. These rock formations were formed over millions of years by sandstone sedimentary rocks being thrust up with the western alps and are now being eroded into spectacular formations by coastal erosion.

We also visited an old gold mine and several beaches between Charleston and Buller Bay. We have also seen lots of wildlife including Weka Oystercatchers Petrels and more fur seals.

Westport

We have now arrived in Westport having driven up the rest of the west coast which is quite wild and rugged. Roger starts a 3 week job in Buller Health Centre tomorrow.

We have a rented house which is spaceous but has quite a lot of things to sort out before it is habitable.

West Coast / Fox Glacier

  Tonight we are staying at Fox Glacier Lodge haven driven up from Alexandra along the west coast. The views of the lakes with the snow topped mountains in the sunshine were fantastic. We have been told to take the seats off our bikes as they are prone to be eaten by the Keas; large parrots which have a liking for rubber!

Alexandra and The Central Otago Rail Trail

We are now in the middle of our 2 week stint in Alexandra and Roger has a day off work after a Saturday and a night on call. So we took a walk along part of the Central Otago Rail Trail which passes through Alexandra. Later in the year when the weather is warmer in Spring we hope to cycle the full 150Km length, but today we just passed through a small part. The scenery is quite stark as the area is a semi arid desert with rocky terrain. Good for sheep but not much else!

Earlier in the week I took a walk on a beautiful clear cold day, along the Clutha River which runs through Alexandra.

Alexandra

We have now arrived in Alexandra, Central Otago, known as the coldest and hottest place in New Zealand. Very wet when we arrived yesterday but a lovely sunny day today. We are staying in one of the doctors house while they are away and Roger is doing the locum. Its a lifestyle property with 10 acres of land including its own vinyard.