Escaping the rain we shortly decided to change the coast on the 31^st of December, crossed the South Island via Lewis Pass and were celebrating the New Year finally at the Pancake Rocks Beach in Punakaki under the stars!

Being back at the west coast, sunny and hot, we took the chance to see what we haven’t seen yet over here: Greymouth, Westport, Karamera spending the night in the most northern point, at magical Kohaihai Beach. An incredible ride between beautiful beaches with great waves and rocks and the rainforest on the other side – hard to describe so much beauty.

In the middle of the the road we did some Underworld Cave Rafting. We wend 5 hours through a fantastic cave-system, 50% in the water 50% walking and in the end of the trip we rafted down a river for 2 km. That was just awesome. Have a look at the pics (this time we uploaded some more than usual)

Now it was time for the famous “Rainbow Road” and the “Molesworth Pass”! Starting in Murchison we went to Saint Arnaud with a cloudy sky and a few raindrops. Starting to drive the Rainbow Road with less and less clouds but a very muddy slippery forest road. Slipping more than driving with all the gears on and passing the first ford (0.5m deep) with big round stones and holes while nearly going for a swim we reached finally she station. The ranger told us the road will be better from now on – we hoped he is right so! But not really – the ^road^ was an adventure, fords with wild water had to be crossed, Cows everywhere on the street… Just what we choose. Have a look at the amazing pictures.

It was an exciting trip for both of us passing all this fords and in the end of the day we reached Hanmer Springs. People everywhere and packed camp sides we decided to do the first 25 km on the Molesworth  Pass until the first station Acheron. With a clear blue sky we went up early and were enjoying the whole day in this fairy tale landscape: green hills, covered with blue lupines rocky mountains in the background along the river sides… sooo beautiful.

On the road we met again and again up with Heike, Martin and their 1 year old sun Max from Germany traveling around in their modified Landrover and we decided to meet probably for the night at the Whites Bay close to Picton. When we reached the campsite they were waiting already with a cold beer for us – GREAT!!! We spend a lovely night together and finally met up again on the Ferry to Wellington the next day where we had a sweet entertainment with little Max!

The arrival in Wellington was quite cold, windy and cloudy but as we could drive directly to Makara, to Lynnie’s and Dean’s place we did not worry. Arrived, again warm welcomed in their warm house and having the chance for a cleanup and catching up here on mails, new tires, shipping the bike…