Otahuna....a touch of the South on the other side of the world.......

WOW!!!!!! What a FUN driving day we had today! WHEW! We are so glad to have finally arrived at Otahuna! I think we were in the car for 8 hours. I must first mention something that we have loved looking at while we were at Eden House.......their neighbors's private golf course. Yes! It is a little ways down the road from Eden House. Evidently, the man's 17 year old son loves golf! WOW, And it is just beautiful. I am putting pics on FB of that little gem of a course. We drove in a steady rain down to Murchison. We drove along the Buller River ....it is a great place to fly fish...when it is pretty! When we left Eden House we ASSUMED we had plenty of gas in the car until we could fill up the car. All I can say is that the light came on when we had over 40k's left to go to get to Murchison....and we had to go through several other towns in route. Who knew that not every town has a gas station!? It was very tense until we glided in and filled up our car.....and it cost over $120 NZ to do that! We stopped for a quick lunch before we went up and over the pass at a place called the Honeybee Junction. I don't recommend it! We had a long drive up and over the pass. Mostly we couldn't see much until we got to the other side of the pass due to the pouring rain and the thick cloud Barry was driving through. When the rain finally let up a little and the clouds lifted, we could see that we were in a beautiful place! Driving up the long driveway to Otahuna was like gliding up to a big Southern mansion. It is just fantastic! The grounds are beautiful.....the food is fantastic! Fiona prepared the most lavish tasty 5 course dinner for us last night! Wow! And if that wasn't enough, she gilded the lily, by placing home-made chocolate truffles at our bedsides. Mmmm.......