As these two photos show (same place, 24 hours apart: Look at the snow!), suddenly the weather closed in and I found out exactly what it feels like to sleep in all your clothes in the front seat of the car. For two nights running. The first night the tent filled up with water and fell over, the second night I decided not to bother risking it. The car seemed so luxurious by then, it has DVD, surround sound, an interior light with a switch, an authentic 'tin roof' for the sound of raindrops... If only I could straighten my legs! Now I know how you feel Paul - I'll never hassle you again about that 'diagonal' thing.

Then as quickly as it changed the first time around.. the weather changed to good and I began my travel up the West Coast of the South Island. Some people might say that I need to be near a moderate sized town to keep my anxiety levels down through retail therapy. I, of course, couldn't possibly comment. I didn't drive THAT fast!

The day I departed from Wanaka the sun suddenly appeared and I immediately felt up-lifted. The plan had always been to travel west via the Haast Pass. I know I keep saying this, but I was completely astounded at just how many beautiful things there are to look at travelling to the West Coast this way. It's almost overwhelming. If I even tried to capture it all on camera, I'd have never got over the pass!

This day I visited Fox Glacier and much to my chagrin, (and the amusement of the varous tourists who were filming the event, but not considering they might have the capacity to avert it!) a Kea did its thing and ate my bike seat, as it sat happily on top of the car - while i was speeding my way up to the glacier to have a look.

There were so many photos worth taking and showing you (Zita, what a compliment using one for your 'wallpaper' There's a Telecom ad here in NZ you must NOT see..) that I created a whole new gallery index for them.

I spent the night at Nasty "Kiwi Adventure Tour Bus Heaven" Franz Joseph. If you don't know Kiwi Adventure, then just think of an antipodean Contiki! they kept asking me to go to the bar with them! OMG! (I forgot which type of beer is the cool one for a 30 year old gay guy to drink - does that sound like an adequate excuse?)

Righto!

Chris