New Zealand Continued 4

Our next days adventure was to drive down the West Coast, across the Southern Alps at their lowest crossing to Queenstown.

This was some of the beautiful coastline. It reminded us of the Oregon Coast.

The West Coast (central and southern) is a rain forest where rain is measured not in millimeters, but in meters! Note how dense the forest is.

There are many "one-way" bridges on New Zealand's lesser used roads.

We came upon this one they were working on. The flagger was a real friendly Kiwi. He greeted us with; "How are you today?" We said; "Just fine". He said; "You probably won't be so fine when I tell you it will be another 15 minutes before you can cross. They are sandblasting the bridge."

We were fine! Every day is an adventure!

We crossed the bridge, rounded a curve and this vista awaited us!

We stopped to take a picture and while Marilyn was out of the car a truck pulled up on the opposite side of the road with "Border Patrol" painted on the door! Uh, oh. Are we in trouble?

Well, the Border Patrol turned out to be this fine Scotsman! Just checking the electric fences!

We had a great time talking and hearing his stories. One of which after WWII he was in California on the coast near Hearst Castle and saw a breed of cattle there that he eventually introduced to New Zealand.

Can you imagine being 12,000 km away from home, "down under" and meeting someone who had been only 45 minutes from where you lived?

Another adventure! From here it was off to Queenstown.