2026: Our 2nd visit to New Zealand's South Island.

Up and on the shuttle bus to the airport at 4am. Checked for the Aurora but too much street lighting and cloud cover. Pretty sunrise.  Nice to see Qld again. Brisbane International airport is undergoing a major renovation and it took an hour from picking up our cases to get through customs.  The queues snaked half way around the world. We encountered numerous detours on the Hwy around the Glenwood area. After 6 1/4 hrs since landing we finally arrived home. Our adventure was amazing and we would certainly go back to NZ to do some more cycling if the opportunity arises. 

This morning we headed to Greymouth to return the car and catch the Tranz Alpine train back to Christchurch. We had 4 hrs to wander around Greymouth before boarding the train.  Or in $AUD 91=$2.66, 95=$2.82, D=$2.41  Finally time to board the train. Lake Brunner, Moana.  We arrived at our accommodation near Christchurch airport at 7.30pm. We are staying at the very up market Sudima hotel but eating the leftover food that we can't take home for dinner. 

Today we had a wet day=rest day. Our room. Mark and I occupied ourselves with a puzzle which took a few hours. We went out for a wander in the break of drizzly rain. After an early dinner Karen and I went for another walk to a waterfall.  The rain held off for our walk thankfully.  Todays temperature range was 13-17°

Today we left Franz Joseph and headed up the coast to Runanga, a small town about 7 kms north of Greymouth. We took a planned detour to do a beautiful 3km walk at the Hokitika gorge. * Info thanks to Google.    The water colour was stunning. No photo shopping needed. We saw a few rainbow trout.  *info thanks to Google. The temperature was a very pleasant 20°  Karen booked us in to a wonderful BnB for 2 nights just out of Greymouth. We have a whole 3 bedroom house to ourselves.  It has multiple lounging areas.