We rode into the ferry, where the crossing rails on the vehicle deck made the riding very interesting. We tied the bike to the deck with the ropes and hooks provided by the ferry, and climbed to the upper deck. The Ferry was very similar to those we had used between Denmark and Germany. We slept about two hours on the ferry. When we arrived to Picton it was still dark. The other bikers started immediately towards inland. They asked us, why we don't continue. I answered, that our headlight is broken. They replied that so is our taillight too. The bouncing battleship was a Stealth. It couldn't be detected even with a radar... What a start for a day. We slept an hour or two more in the harbour.

We rode first to Blenheim, where we filled up the battleship, and where I disassembled the taillight. Both the filaments were cut, so I replaced the bulb. The brake light started to function, but the taillight itself was dead. Maybe it was the same bad connect that caused the starter button troubles, since also the taillight started to function occasionally.

From Blenheim we continued towards the west coast, to Westport. We had two alternate routes, and we chose the smaller. That was a mistake, since the road ran through the Wairau river valley, being straight, windy, and boring. However, when we got to the road that goes via Buller Gorge, the road, and the scenery were again magnificent. The road was twisting along the river in the bottom of the gorge.

In Westport we reserved a room from YHA. They didn't have any whole free rooms, but we shared a four bed room with a Scottish couple. They were travelling by bus. They had already been two months on road, and they planned to stay one more. In the YHA we reserved an accommodation to Wanaka for the night two days later. We got a double room from Wanaka. Then we went to the Tourist Info, and there we reserved a backpackers accommodation to Fox Glacier. It would be in a six bed dormitory. We also reserved a guided hiking tour on top of the glacier itself.

Almost every city or bigger town in NZ has got a “Visitor Information Centre”, but most of those close at 5 pm. Luckily some of them have at least an area map on their wall with the major attractions and accommodations in the area for the late arriving traveller.

We had read from our Lonely Planet guide, that there is a restaurant in Westport, that is famous of it's big hamburgers. We found that restaurant, and ordered a pair of burgers. The burgers were so high, that they had put a stick through the burger to keep the layers on top of each other. After the burgers, we had a relaxing evening stroll on the beach.