turned on a light. It rolled around the valley all night and at one point was right overhead, it was hopeless trying to sleep and I was pretty frightened, I think to be honest Rob was a little edgy as well! The wind was howling and we were being well and truly battered by the elements yet again! The weather was wild and we were right in the thick of it, but at least this time we were all snuggled up in our sleeping bags and extra quilts in a water tight van! As night turned to day things eased a little and it didn’t seem as scary as when it was pitch black, we had survived and everything was intact! Wow what a night! Definitely our wildest in New Zealand so far!

We weren’t going to chance using the cooker as there was still the odd rumble of thunder and frequent downpour so we packed up and headed off. We thought we’d get away from the big trees and have breakfast somewhere else. As we

drove back through the valley there were numerous road side waterfalls and the rivers were in full flow. We ended up stumbling across Maruia waterfall and pulled in as the rain was gradually subsiding. The falls were amazing, before we reached them we heard the powerful sound of water crashing down, we couldn’t have chosen a better time to visit them, they were definitely at their peak.

After the falls the road wound its way through another beautiful valley before starting the gradual climb onto the Lewis Pass. We had decided to do all 3 cross country passes as the scenery was supposed to be superb and we certainly weren’t disappointed. The glacial valley’s were reminiscent of Tibet only on a smaller scale, people we’d met along the way had said how different the North and South islands were, and I think at this moment we were starting to see what they meant. The scenery was outstanding and