New Zealand Green Fern Beer

 The brewery was really neat, all throughout our chat, customers were coming in and filling up all sorts of containers with beer, they would fill anything with beer. You can buy a flag-on which is about a one litre or a rigger which is about a 2 litre. The brewery is known for their "green fern" beer which is entirely organic so we opted for a few varietals including green fern. We had a light meal after Matt's strenuous liquid lunch and spent the night at the local holiday park.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand Miner's Brewery

 This particular stretch of beach really reminded me so much of the West Coast of Ireland. We drove back to town and after hunting down a simple sandwich (you would not believe how hard these are to come by) we went to the Miner's Brewery.

This is the real stuff, no poser beer here, and they take their work very seriously. The chap that served us was friendly as ever so we talked to him for awhile while Matt drank as quickly as possible (free "tastings" - he was chugging).

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand Westport

 We slept in a wee bit today and leisurely made our way to the town of Westport. Our plan was to drive along the entire West Coast of the South Island. Westport is known as an "authentic" New Zealand township and it proved to be very cute. It looked as if it might rain so we made straight for another seal colony and lighthouse just outside town. 

The seals were quite saucy and it was just fun to watch them play. The lighthouse was not too impressive so we snapped off a few pictures and made our way to the other side of the sea lookout which turned out to be spectacular.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand Motueka

As soon as we arrived, Matt drove like a shot straight to the grocery where we bought thick steaks, onions and peppers to grill and, of course, mac and cheese. We went back to the holiday park at Motueka, chilled one of the bottles of wine and had a fantastic dinner. 

My grooming/beauty regiment (don't laugh, I've been in the woods for 5 days!) took about 2 hrs while Matt entertained himself with a good book. Very happy.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 78 Totaranui

 Today was our last day on the track and, even though we had had a great time, we were so excited to get back to our van and real food and hot showers (ahhhhhhhh, the luxury). We had a pretty short walk back to Totaranui (home of the sand fly) where we would catch the water taxi/ cruise we had arranged with Wilson's Experience. We positively bounced back down the mountain and arrived early for our departure. We lay on the beach for about an hour until our taxi arrived and then happily boarded for the relaxing three hour cruise back.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 77 Star-Gazing

 But they were great fun and we had a really good time just talking to them about the different things they had done. The funny thing is, we never even got their names. It turned out to be a late night as we eventually went outside and star-gazed (the stars out here are amazing with no pollution and all different because we are in the southern hemisphere). They were familiar with the constellations and pointed out several to us. We went to bed late after a really awesome day.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 76 Super-Human

 But to add to it, he had biked clear across the United States coast-to-coast by himself as a "break" after graduating high school. They were currently hiking the entire A.T. Track that we were doing plus the inland A.T. track in the same amount of time that we were taking to do the first portion. I think Matt and I both felt a bit inadequate and very much in awe, I know I did (they looked like regular people but they were obviously super-human). 

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued)