In Dunedin is a street from which it is said it is the steepest on earth. Well, as we experienced before: if New Zealanders don't know it better, they call their own things the biggest, best, largest, clearest, ... But even if they know it better, they might still call their things as said before. We were for obvious reasons very suspicious. But the street really is very steep and even the Guinnes Book of Records mentions this street as the steepest.

We left the city, that is said to be the fifth biggest on earth (only the area, not population)... We drove on towards the Silver Peak Range. There we hoped to undertake some hiking. But as the Tree-Farmers were harvesting their forest, it was a bit dangerous. So we went to the highway and drove to Moeraki. There we walked along the beach to the famous boulders.

The next morning we made our way up to Twizel where we had booked a room in a motel. As it was Pias birthday, we wanted a proper kitchen and a telephone. On the way there were some Maori Rock Arts (which we found very disappointing) and Clay Cliffs. They were fascinating!

The weather was fine on both the 14. and the following day. We drove to Mt Cook village at the base of the same named mountain. There we hiked along the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Lake and the Hooker Glacier.

The 16th was again very wet. We started breakfast in the sun but ended it in the car because of the suddenly changing weather.

Our little hike to the Tasman Lake and Glacier would have been much more scenic if there hadn't been so many clouds and raindrops. But we can't complain, others haven't even seen Mt Cook...

We left this region and drove to Fairlie. We would have loved to hike on one or another peak in the area, but besides the bad weather there were (and probably still are) fences everywhere. Very disappointing! We didn't want to risk a hike in privat property. All farmers have very vicious dogs...