18th Dec - Bluff to Te Anau

It is the anniversary of my Gran's death today and so I am thinking about her and my granddad a lot. I miss her!

Woke up at 6.30 with the light and tried to get back to sleep but did not manage it even though I am a bit tired. Christoph slept till about 9. We went for a swim in the sea first thing in the morning and had another cooked breakfast of porridge and coffee. Drove to Invercargill and planned our afternoon walk and did some food shopping for the next few days. As we will have a kitchen we decided to get some sensible grown up food other than instant noodles :-)

Again it was gray and miserable all morning with rain showers. By the afternoon it had all cleared up and we had a great view of the mountains as we drove from Tuatapere to Manpouri. We took the little ferry across the river and did the circular walk through the forest and up the hill. It was 13.5 km and we did it easily in 3 hours.
Today was the first time that I really saw some of the sights that I came to NZ for! Sunshine, forests, mountains and lakes. Happy me :-) I really want to go and do a good hike tomorrow now - up high. The forests are all deciduous and un touched. There is a very different feel to the mountains and forests in NZ verses Europe.

We got to the house about 7.30 (we had popped to the shops to get some peanut butter and jam for sandwiches for tomorrow). It was fab to have a house to go to. It was strange to have a house to ourselves without anyone else in. It felt like our house for 2 days - a real base with a shower, running water, beds, a lounge and a kitchen. It is strange when you are traveling how much you appreciate the small things in life. I have been either camping, hosteling or staying in someone else's house for the last 3 month. I think that when ever you are staying in someone else's house you are always aware of invading their space and slightly on edge and do not completely relax. Having a house for free with out anyone else there was brilliant. It was extremely good of Kylie to lend it to us. We cooked a meal with prawns, veg, rice and a sweet chilli sauce - and chilled. :-)