OK so photos below, and hell, some of them even uploaded before I write about them - that's a bit too efficient even for me...

Heading north we made it up to Punakaiki before sunset (this place name reminded me of 'poodlephykies', which for some weird reason me and my brother used to call a belly button when we were about 6...) home of the pancake rocks. Noone knows how they were formed or indeed why they are there but they are, if you get my drift. Sunrise and sunset in one day was all too much and we trudged the 50 kms or so south to Greymouth before our 'fush and chups' dinner. Greymouth should definitey be rhymed with Plymouth, as it is particularly grim, especially when wet and windy as it was the night we were there.

The weather during the night and in the morning was grey and awful and we gingerly started out over Arthur's Pass (no idea who Arthur was/is sorry!) which was specacular indeed. At one point we were in the valley surrounded on all sidees by snowcapped mountains. When we arrived at Kaikoura (our destination for the night) we paused for a few minutes for a cup of tea, for me to finish yet another book and to watch a whitebait fisherman as the sea came crashing in around him. And that was just about all there was to Friday really...until we ended up in Kaikoura for a beer. Richard (who doesn't drink much) livened up after his half of cider and decided to start moving things around in the restaurant we went to, he grabbed the specials blackboard and the A-frame outside and positioned them so we could see and read them, all a little bizarre but quite amusing nonetheless. My dinner was awful, they brought by steak cold, so I returned it apologetically. The chef was obviously from the Gordon Ramsey school of charm as he clearly just bunged it in the microwave/deep fat fryer as it came back as tough as old boots and well-donw to the core. Not feeling like causing a scene I simply asked them to strike it off the bill, which they did, and the rest continued on with their meals. It's not like I'm going to waste away is it??

This morning we went whale watching courtesy of Whale Watching Kaikoura (tm) and Richards credit card (our thanks go out to parties...) and it was another fantastic experience. The sperm whales are toothed and can eat giant squid up to 5m in length - not too keen on falling overboard then, I'd be like an h'or deauve (or however it's spelt...). WWK were excellent and highly imformative, showing us computer generated videos of how the cayon we were in would look without the water (over 1200m deep) and the like. Well recommended. And where to after that. Well we fairly raced up the coast, said goodbye's to Richard and Lynn and have now arrived in Nelson, just 100km short of Pupu Springs where we are planning to dive tomorrow. Richard and Lynn are headed off to the north island (which will be a bit of a let down after the south methinks) and we hope they get on well. They've been more than generous, paying of r just about everything the last few days so a big thank-you from the both of us. In the last week we have driven over 2,000 kmns trying to give them a feel for the island, and I think they had a good time, we certainly did.