On the South Island

No Internet yesterday, so catching up on two days -

Yesterday we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. Smooth 2 hour cruise across Cook Strait and about an additional hour weaving through small islands off the north shore of the South Island.  Lovely, of course.  Clouds and an occasional bit of light rain on the ferry became steady light rain for the rest of the day.

It's a different world down here!  Miles and miles with nothing but vineyards and cloud draped mountains.  Teeny towns, narrow roads (not as narrow as Australia so far).  We're in temperate rainforest, so it's very dense and green.  The Upper Buller Gorge is beautiful when you get a peek through the vegetation down to the green water and rocky river bed below.

We traded our parking lot campground (which, I have to say, worked wonderfully for maximizing time and access in Wellington) for a simple Department of Conservation campground above the river.  Stopped driving just in time as the rain got heavier.

Today, we didn't wake up until 8:00 - late for us.  There were no man made sounds overnight, just the sound of rain and, early this morning, van-shaking thunder.  Then the birds took over.  Great way to start the day.

We're making our way south on the west coast - destination is Franz Josef glacier sometime in the next couple of days.  We're taking it easy, stopping wherever we see or read about something of interest and taking short hikes ("tramping"). So some of today's stops:
Lower Buller Gorge - sheer rock faces; a short section of the road was kind of a half tunnel, where you drive under the cut away mountain.
Tauranga Bay/Cape Foulwind - A New Zealand fur seal colony.  They're a rich brown, rather than gray like ours.  Pups nursing.  Wild surf.  Hillsides covered in spiky flax plants.
Flirting all day with a thin band of blue sky between the fog bank over the water and the clouds over the mountains.
Truman Track near Punakaiki - a short tramp on a beautiful track through rainforest to the Tasman Sea.  Eroded limestone cliffs.
Paparoa National Park - "Pancake Rocks" and "The Blowholes".  The rocks here are in very clear layers that look like, yup, pancakes.  The sea surges in and shoots up through the blowholes (and it wasn't even high tide.
At least 75% of the ride today was  knock-your-socks-off beautiful.  (The rest was just pretty!). This coastal route is like Australia's Great Ocean Road on steroids.  Indescribable.

Spending the night in Hokitika, which we'll explore tomorrow.