West Coast

Thursday November 11th Nelson – Greymouth

Leaving our beautiful spot in Nelson, the spot with the most sun in all of NZ, headed down to Greymouth. Driving by hops plants used all over NZ for the making of beer we passed through the town of Murchison & into the Buller Gorge. This is a fly fisherman’s paradise with long meandering rivers & streams with rocky inlets. We stopped at Cape Foulwind, a kekeeno sealion colony where the seals were basking in the sun & frolicking in the waves. We also came across the weka, a flightless bird that resembles a mix of a duck, chicken, kiwi & pukeko. Pretty funny looking but not afraid of us humans……… they sure can run fast. We continued to enjoy the sun & with that beautiful west coastline shots. On to Punakaiki to check out the pancake rocks & blow holes, we came at just the right time to have high tide get us with ocean spray & thunderous rumbling of the ground beneath our feet. On to Greymouth which literally means mouth of the Grey River. It held up to its name with it being a dreary grey day but none of us cared as we were headed off to the Monteith’s brewery tour. It was well worth the $30 to enjoy 6 tasting glasses of all the Monteith’s lineage + several more glasses of whichever we liked most. Mine was the apple cider…….yum. Oh & our dinner out at the Railway bar & restaurant.

The crazy twists & turns of the road through this particular section of our travels it still amazes me how our driver, Scott, can not only navigate these roads with the coach tour bus but commentate the surroundings & coordinate all of our accommodation & activities for the day. A truly impressive feat!





 

Friday November 12th Greymouth – Franz Josef

Leaving the still greyness of Greymouth we moved southward through the small town of Hokatika. This small community is entirely based on greenstone or jade, in maori pounamu. The maori believe that pounamu carry the soul of the person, therefore it is best to wear jade before giving it as a gift. On to the barely there town of Ross, a gold mining town along the West coast rainforest. I didn’t try my hand in panning for gold, but apparently one was guaranteed to always find some (I am thinking a fleck of gold wouldn’t get me too far on my travels). Passing over more magnificent glacier fed meandering rivers & streams it was off to Franz Josef. Franz Josef is one of the many glaciers along the Southern Alps here in New Zealand but one of only 2 (the other being Fox glacier) that are able to be easily walked to & on. I am staying here in Franz Josef for the next 3 nights to fit in a full day glacier hike. Will update more likely once I get to Queenstown at the end of the week

 

Points to Ponder



It should be noted that along one’s backpacker travels & adventures you really can & do meet amazing people with similar independent wants & likes. Whilst constantly on the move it is freeing in a way to know you are living out of & off of what you can carry; your backpack, daypack & whatever your food bag might hold at the moment . There are far more people that fit this scenario but occasionally & perhaps even more so rarely, you meet the duds. Yes, they are easy to spot & well you let them do their own thing, minimize contact except for cordial required passing & greeting opportunities. However, sometimes the unfortunate happens. You end up in the same room. This may not seem like the worst thing & so one shrugs it off, making the most of them having spread the entire contents of their massive rolly suitcase all over the 2 bunk bed room you are sharing with 4 people in total for the one night that you will be in the room. You find a corner for your stuff & even politely oblige for them to have the bottom bunk as it would likely be easier for me to climb up. Sure (insert fake smile). But I suppose the biggest tip off that might have put me over the edge was the turning on of all the lights at 1:30am when she needed to use the toilets. Okay perhaps even that could be forgiven. Nope it was the lights on again at 5:00am to apply an A535 type product that stunk up the room, & when I then opened the window to attempt to get fresh air to avoid the suffocating I was enduring in my sleep it was slammed shut. The lights were left on to proceed to the packing up the entire contents around the room………… for the next hour & a half. Our bus did not leave until 8 am. Let’s just say there has been no politeness, fake smiles or even a remote glance in their direction. I also knew that if I was in the same room here in Franz Josef that I would be finding another room, no matter the cost .

Traveling, it is not only a life changing experience for oneself, but an exercise in patience, respect for thy neighbor & a game of catching up on sleep!