The Hippies are in Murchison

We had a big day yesterday and here are some images from the day and today as our New Zealand adventure begins. We had some van issues today. I will get to that! Today was buy pillows, fishing licences, grocery shop and drive about 350 km through some beautiful land.

This is leaving Hobart, Tasmania. Good bye to all the crazy Tassies!

...convict stock

Enter Melbourne- yes again! We had to fly back to fly over!

Qantas has been great - but do you think they might have a bit of a monopoly? They have allowed our 200 pounds of gear on all 7 flights so far with no hassels.

At the Elm Hotel checking out to go and get our beloved WICKED van.

Ohoh! We can't drive this. We just can't. Yes - this was the van they had assigned to us. We decided to wait a couple of hours while they cleaned us a different piece of crap with a more appropriate saying. Watch for forthcoming picture of van in the next edition. Andy will like the saying on the new van....oh yeah and everyone stares and laughs at us as we drive down the road. It is way smaller and cramped and it is raining. It is smaller than our minivan. How many days are we doing this? Whose idea was this?

This building was closed due to earthquake damage. There are many buildings with visible damage and fencing around them. Repairs are madly underway.

Beautiful old Catholic church.

Just past Hanmer Springs. We have an automatic and Bob is happy! And do you see the blue water behind him? It is a river. We have not seen a blue river in quite a while. Gorgeous, isn't it?

This is the view as we made our way through the Lewis Pass today. What gorgeous scenery. It is very different from Australia. This is so green and lush.

We are on the road and here is our van. We will send close ups soon but as you can see we don't need to worry about scratching the paint.