* from East to West

(from the desk of Serena) Yesterday Terry, Rachel and I meandered from Akaroa on a bay on Banks Peninsula on the eastern side of NZ through Arthur's pass to Greymouth on the West side. Let's see you cross a country in a day! We had set the day aside for driving, so we stopped several times to enjoy scenery. Terry handled all the winding roads in our campervan wonderfully. I did have to tell him he could have found a more beautiful spot for lunch. He could only find an amazing valley with sparkling blue water. In the distance we had snow-capped mountains. Every now and then a small waterfall gushed out through the rock, falling about 50-100 feet before it hit the bottom. We also took a walk over a footbridge where we could see to the bottom of the 20 foot deep river that gushed through it. The bridge had a maximum of 5 people, until the end where we had to go down one at a time. We also went under a bridge that was built for water to flow across above us. It was wonderful driving through the valleys surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

We spent last night on the Seashore in Greymouth. Rachel and I saw a gorgeous sunset over the water. This morning we got up early to go on a blackwater tubing adventure. We were with an Australian couple, a British couple, and our guide. We had a 20 minute walk through gorgeous rainforest lands to the cave entrance. There was a lot of wandering through the caves and less tubing, but it was amazing. I felt like I was at Devil's Lake in the darkness. We had some small caverns that we climbed through. During our tubing sessions we got to see glowworms on the top of the caverns. At the end, Terry and I slid down a 30-foot natural waterslide. That was a rush! Then we got to enjoy their complimentary hot tub, muffins, and beer/wine.

From here, we plan to head South to Fox Glacier and then on to Queenstown, where we will hopefully catch up with the other group and exchange stories.

Hope you are all doing well!

Serena, Rachel, and Terry