hello from haast

have arrived in Haast, a stopover village on the west coast on the way to Wanaka/Queenstown. It's blisteringly hot, not what we had been led to expect, although the sandflies are starting to bite now. They love my ankles and the small of my back.

Annabel fell a little ill last night after dinner, but is much better this morning. She hasn't got much room in her stomach and we ate quite late, so there's nothing to worry about.

The trip down from Franz Josef was great. We had a walk around Lake Matheson, which is famous for showing reflections of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in the lake, but unfortunately it was a bit windy although it was still pretty impressive. We stopped off for another break at Lake Pakaringa which was just lovely where we had chocolate and banana muesli bars.