Landed on our feet again! :)

I hope my English teachers aren't reading these...I just read over some past blogs and could count all the mistakes... I guess that's what happens when blogging late at night after traveling all day.

On to Day 6 (yesterday)

Yesterday we traveled from the cool fishing town of Havelock to Hokitika, the Jade capital of NZ. Dave and I originally planned to end in Greymouth on the West Coast, but decided to push on. There wasn't much going on in Greymouth. I was looking forward to finally getting a chance to see the West Coast and the Tasman Sea. Weather is supposed to be a bit dicey this time of year, so Dave and I were prepared.

Our route took us down the 6, to the 69 between two amazing mountain ranges, and on to the 7 and the West Coast. We still hit lots of wind and spots of rain, but not too bad. The road along the coast was getting poured on, as we could see the clouds built up over that range. It was so great to come over that hill and into Greymouth and finally see the Tasman Sea.

Another fantastic ride, lots of twisties and thick lush fauna. The South Island is definitely more rural than the North, lots of farms and cattle/sheep stations. Riding along the Tasman Sea was equally as impressive. It was very rough, lots of wind and thrashing waves...nothing that would inspire anyone to go in for a casual swim.

David and I finally decided to stay in Hokitika, a great town. It reminds me of Pismo and Shell Beach on the California Central Coast. Our room had it's own kitchen and windows all the way around. It's so quiet here, we're just over 1km from the beach, and could hear each wave crashing as if right next to them.

The bloke, Peter, who runs the place is about my age and we got on pretty well. We started talking about blues/rockabilly and some other American genres of music we both like. He recommended I visit a pub on the other side of town were some of the guys in town get together and have an informal jam session. Peter told me sometimes it's country, sometimes blues, sometimes good, and sometimes "shit". We went down there later, and it was the latter, so after a couple handles we came back and finally did laundry. Luckily there were facilities on the premises, which was good because after almost a week, some of our clothes were starting to acquire their own personalities and fight with each other.

Today, Dave and I are continuing down the West Coast and plan to see the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Hopefully the weather will hold, I'm looking and it looks a bit cloudy that direction. I guess this is pretty typical this time of year as NZ is coming into fall. We'll likely end up in either Wanaka or Queenstown....

Hoping all of you are doing well,

John