the Haast visitor center worker directed us to a camp ground on a peninsula south of the town. it would be a bit of a deviation from the planned trip (we were supposed to turn north east from Haast), but that's why we built in extra days. we actually drove down the peninsula and found the campground, but then had to double back to pick up groceries and fill up the camper's tank. that turned out okay because across the way from the small grocery/gas station was a miniature horse farm. there were three or four little ponies. but only this white one came up to us.

in all seriousness, this could have been the highlight of finn's trip. (helicopters might be a close second). he and debbie fed the little pony some grass and pet his nose. finn could have spent the rest of the afternoon there.





part of the reason we went to the camp ground that was so out of the way was because it was across the street from the Hapuka Estuary reserve. i think finn was hungry and debbie and i were both tired, so we didn't really feel like doing much... but we did the hike anyway. at least we knew it was an easy walk. we did bring a sippy cup full of milk to keep finn happy:


it turned out to be very pretty and well worth the effort:



much of the walk was on boardwalk since it was a marshy area.


that's the ocean in the distance:


we also heard an unusual bird calling during our walk. we learned from a NZ couple that it was likely a Tui. we had done a circular hike, we passed her one way and met her spouse soon after. we found her again at the trailhead, with him following soon after. i'm not completely clear why they got separated but we did hear a bit about the Tui from them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tui_(bird)

somewhere in this shot, there might be a Tui: