Day 8 - I think Camper Van

We got a very late start the next day- as cuddling in the TV room seemed like a much needed activity. We had a long drive ahead of us- about 8.5 hours to Kaikora.

The drive was though rain forest mountains. I think it was one of the most beautiful drives yet. We had to drive through a National park- it was curvy road inside the rain forest. There were a million shades of green, so bright and full of life.

WE hit the coast line and decided to veer off for a little walk on the beach. We reached the water and it was magnificent. There was a friendly fisherman completing the picturesque moment. The sand was black from the volcanoes and the water was sea foam green... I now understand where the name of the color comes from! It was a misty day and the mountains in the background were peaking out through the fog. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for more than a few minutes as we had a long drive ahead and it was getting dark. We did stay long enough for me to put my feel in the cold waters of Ross beach.

We drove on- through the single lane highway. There were tons of one way bridges we had to pass over. This was true for most of our rides, but these had train tracks on them too! We not only had to worry about a car coming from the opposite direction but now had to fear a train as well! Doing this at night was no easy task- but we honked the horn before we went over each time and hoped that that was enough!

We made it to Kaikora and found the dodgiest camp site. It was awful, but its all there was. We had an early start the next day, alarm set for 6 am!