We spend another day with lovely Lynnie in Wellington before we took the ferry direction South Island. Unfortunately it was grey and rainy and the same way the South Island welcomed us.
Ignoring the rain we went the direction which was planned: North!

Next day the weather looked much better again and we went up to Farwell Split and spend a great time on the hidden campsite at the very end of a gravel road, Wharariki Beach. In the middle of green hills close to endless wide white sand beaches amazing rocks and many seals were waiting for us. The owner of the campsite gave us a contact where we can get a new back tire and as a good bye he passed us a big pack of fresh fish for our next dinner which we had in Abel Tasman, Totaranui – yummy, but therefor we got tortured by sandflies – autsch! We will need to get different repellent!!! Nevertheless it is a beautiful place with a lot of tramping possibilities and many small yellow sand beaches and rocks for fishing.
Further on the way to the mountains we had an appointment to get a new back tire in Nelson. After the change and giving a helping hand to a BMW driver ;-) we stayed the night at the mountain lake Rotoiti in St Arnaud. Unfortunately we had to change our planned route cause all gravel passes are still closed until after the Boxing Day… so we went over the Lewis Pass to Hanmer Springs and enjoyed the hot pool springs up there in the mountains. On the camp site our neighbors were two “Aussis”, Marc and Adam with their bikes and a Scottish guy living in South Africa – we spend a nice evening with stories wine and beers together.
An incredible clear day were waiting for us and as we had the possibility to stay not that far away a night in Christchurch at the place of Warren and Lex we could chose interesting mountain tracks and the nice little gravel coast roads to get there.
Warren and Lex welcomed us warmly and invited us for dinner. We had a wonderful sleep in a cozy warm bed and having fresh washed nice smelling clothes again!!! THANK YOU! They offered us to stay as long as we want but as the time is passing so quickly we need to go ahead… so much more to see!!!
We just recognized they put the new tire the wrong way up… Sascha just left to a close garage to get it done the right way. Hopefully they can do it quickly. Actually it is not that easy here in Christchurch after the earth quakes. Many shops are still closed or having reduced opening times or opened temporary business in different places. It will take a while until life will get to “normal” here again…

Apropos normal! Last but not least: Sascha´s face is back to 99%! Thanks to all of you crossing fingers here!!!

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