From Westport we drove to Hammer Springs 220km 132mi much as we had driven the past few days, Rainy mountainous curvy one lane bridge roads with a new twist several of the curvy areas had small single lane roads. At least with the bridges they were straight so you could see the other side. These one lane roads required mirrors which weren't there to see if anybody was coming. None the less we traversed them successfully. We stopped at another rather interesting Water fall before proceeding to Hammer Springs. Once there we walked in town and on a walking trail for awhile and then we went to the hot springs to relax. Upon return we sat a for awhile with our traveling companions and debby and I went back to town for a lovely dinner at a place called Jollie Jacks.

Hammer springs to Picton 289 km 174mi

The drive Piction included more narrow roads maybe the narrowest and more one lane bridges. Fortunately it wasn't raining until we got to the South Pacific Ocean. Having read Somerset Maughm and Joseph Conrad when I was younger I always pictured the South Pacific as hot and tropical not cold, windy and wet. none the less the color of the South Pacific was quite blue almost aqua marine. We drove along the coast for several miles and stopped once to view the fur seal colony and at the Store for chowder in bread basket before continuing to the New World Grocery in Blenheim.

The Store

From Blenheim we continued to Picton for the night.

For those of you who are curious as to how one maintains sewer and gray water holding tanks. The ones at Picton were the cleanest best set up of our whole trip. gray water dumps through a grate or often onto the grass while the sewer holding tank is a cassette that pulls out of the motor home and is dumped and rinsed at a facility like the one above. Most aren't this clean and well appointed with a sink and soap to wash ones hands after dumping.

Picton was our final stop on the South or smaller island of New Zealand. In the morning we would drive the short distance to the Picton ferry terminal, board the ferry and make the trip to New Zealand's larger Southern Island and the Wellington Ferry Terminal