friday 4th feb.

yesterday cycled past fox glacier, walked as far as the public are allowed to, wider but not as steep as franz josef, but there were lumps of ice in the river. Cycled on south but "ow the water", a delivery van stopped and offered to give me and my bike a lift on to hastt, but i resisted. Did however stay at the next available spot a motor lodge next to lake paringa, very nice spot in the morning , when dry -full of brown trout. today cycled on to hastt and am camping. Stopped and had a walk along the wild coast, very much like the east coast of Scotland, at ships bay - so named because: in 1855 a schooner set sail from Liverpool to Melbourne but was wrecked off the coast of Victoria (no loss of life), pieces of the wrecked vessel, however came assure at this cove and had thus drifted across the Tasman sea. Also stopped and had some whitebait cooked on a grill at a kind of takeaway van on the seafront this is the local speciality. lots of sandflies (nz midge like pests)