4.9 on the Richter Scale

Friday's "earthquake" measured 4.9 on the Richter Scale, the owners of the motel told me this morning. Not enough to warrant the news but enough to keep the town of Haast talking. I felt two quite severe jolts in the space of a couple of seconds under the reception area (left) where I was sat writing my latest masterpiece. Weird experience but not that rare in this part of the world.

This weekend marks the halfway point of our trip - seven and half weeks into 15 in all. New York etc seem a long time ago. Meanwhile in New Zealand, the hire car clocked up 2,000 miles as we drove to Haast. Dave