unappealing it had to be said. We did manage to get hold of Penny on the phone though, our friend from Christchurch who we’d met in Russia. We said we’d meet her when we got to Christchurch, and she kindly agreed to phone the US visa people for us as well, which was a bonus!! We looked at a couple of the DOC sites, and although cheap they were very basic and we’d spotted a site in Hollyford Valley which, for a quid or two more boasted hot showers!! That was enough to convince us, so we drove fifteen or so kilometres down a gravel road in the pouring rain. It should be pointed out at this stage that my previous diary of Wanaka and Queenstown contained an error - the Haast pass is not in fact the lowest and our last crossing of the Southern Alps, the Divide, in between the Eglington and Hollyford valleys which we passed over at this point is!! Sorry about that folks!!

Anyway, The Gunn camp, as

it was called, was an amazing place!! It consisted of a group of 1930s cabins which were built as family accommodation for the workers who were building the road to Milford Sound. It had three spaces for campervans, a kitchen with gas stoves, and a huge wood fired boiler which supplied extremely hot water for showers and washing up!! There was no electricity other than by generator, but the lovely lady there said that if we wanted any batteries charging she would plug them into the generator for us!! There was also a museum which was normally a dollar (about 35p !!!!), but was free for guests!! This turned out to be an fascinating room full of memorabilia from the road building days, including lots of newspaper cuttings, various tools and even a fully complete diesel engine!!! When we arrived we realised that bongo was covered in green sludge!! The whole area was rich in Greenstone, or Pounamu as the Maori call it. This is a kind of Jade which the Maori used in place of metal for tools and weapons, and