the von river road is a gravel road which made the climb from the lake up the valley rather challenging. once on the high plateau the road is quiet flat, there’s hardly any traffic and the scenery of unspoiled beauty.
we stopped at the mavora lakes in the evening. it was busy as it was the day before waitangi day, the annual celebration of the treaty signed in 1840. i had no plan to visit the very south part of the island but changed my mind as i had still enough time and continued to travel with laurence and jens to southland.