South Island Early Days

South Island has so far proved even quieter than the North with more mountainous scenery, almost no one using tthe DOC sites and loads of potential for the next few months. The road round from Picton to Blenheim passed along the remarkble coastline that the ferry had threaded through before we headed inland passing the famous vineyards to stay near St Arnaud. There we had a superb walk up to the snow line with great views over the Nelson Lakes National Park before heading to the Lewis Pass, Hamner Springs and eventually Hurunui. Here Sarah had a wonderful day's ride with Alpine Horse Safaris - the ten day option sounds awesome.
A walk up to a DOC hut gave us a chance to check them out as we hope to start using them frequently having bought Back Country Hut Passes - very much like the British bothies but on a more formalised basis.
It is the 8th of December and we are in Christchurch to submit our application for visa extensions to 12 months which was a bit involved as we needed new photos, copies of bank statements and so on in support but we are hopeful that we will get a positive reply before Christmas - it would be the perfect joint present.
After a visit to friends near Ashburton we will head in to the hills for a few days, return for the visa verdict and then head way down south for the busier Christmas period - very odd to see Xmas decorations everywhere in bright sunshine with people wearing T shirts and shorts. Still we will get used to it and in the meantime wish all a very Happy Christmas and New Year should we fail to post in the next couple of weeks.
As usual a link to pics below - gluttons for punishment are welcome to email us for free Yuletide Logs - the extended versions of these musings with pics downloadable as a PDF - just ask!
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sjarratt5/SouthIslandEarlyDays?authkey=Gv1sRgCKfDi_jqhsWqfA&feat=directlink