We are staying in Graymouth at the Ardwyn house, built in the 1930's, and run by a grandmotherly, English widow, Mary. It has beautiful old lead glass windows and a blazing, coal fire in the living room. She served us a wonderful cooked English breakfast in her small cheery kitchen this morning. (I have to say though, that even though the bedroom has a nice electric heater, the bathroom does not. Tom says that he hasn't used an outhouse in a long time until now since the window is permanently levered open. 40 degrees outside is 40 degrees inside!!)Today we are driving highway 73, the Arthur's Pass mountain road, towards Christchurch, just for the view. We are
following roughly the scenic train path, and in fact, started our trip by crossing an enclosed iron bridge that was also the main train line over the Taramakau River. It was a single lane bridge, fully filled by the huge truck crossing as we waited our turn.
Stopped at the scenic overlook to see the water fall shelter over the highway and met the friendly kea birds, a lovely jade green, a relative to the parrot, and not at all afraid of visitors.
The road led up into the Otira gorge where We stopped to see the award winning Otira
viaduct (bridge) and it started snowing big fluffy flakes on us. The building of this bridge is considered a considerable engineering feat, due to its length, the depth of the canyon and the geologically fragile nature of the environment. It replaced a road which was frequently damaged by avalanches due to earthquakes in the area.
We continued on to Lake Person, a huge fresh water lake, where we turned around to return to Arthur's Pass village for a yummy lunch, a view of the mountains, and a 2 dollar serving of internet. This gave us a chance to call home before it got too late. 2pm here is 9pm there. 
This was another single lane bridge with quite a view.
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