This photo deserves special space because it is so beautiful. The Buller Gorge is stunning. It is also commercial. Right after I snapped this photo, a motor boat tour came up the river and disturbed the quietness. It is a recreation river. Lots of white water and scenery. The Buller River runs east and west across the northern end of the South Island.

 We saw these yellow and orange red flowers everywhere along side the road. I don't know what they are, but they sure did add a lovel touch of color.

One of the best parts of the trip was that there were vast periods of time (well, vast in comparison to the fast pace of life at home), when nobody in the whole world knew where we were, we had absolutely no schedule to keep and we did exactly what we wanted. This was one of those stops. Mariah saw a sign for New Zealand's longest swing bridge at Buller Gorge and she wanted to walk on it. Until she got on it and got scared. But, to her credit, she persevered and made it across. Once across we took a bush walk and ended up at the bottom of the gorge and got our feet wet. And were introduced to sand fleas (ugh!!!).

 

Here she is getting snapped in for the ride. It is a swing for two, so I rode behind her. We both had sandals on and had to scrunch up our shoes so that we didn't lose them. It was great fun!