Day Sixteen … Heading North

Today we began the journey north up the West Coast as we make our way towards the end of our trip. We still have a few days left and much to do but today we left glacier country to head back towards the ocean. We were up and on our way before our planned time which is pretty typical of us. We left Franz Josef and set the GPS for the town of Ross.

The drive today was a mix of mountains, flat pasture land surrounded by mountains, scenic parks, rivers and ocean. Pretty much a typical driving day on the west coast of NZ. We left with thick clouds hanging over the mountains but as the day progressed we had beautiful skies and a lovely 22 degrees.

We arrived in Ross which is a small town (population 285). It had been a gold mining town in the 1860s and at one point had 2,500 people. Today there is one very eclectic shop/petrol station/supermarket/post office/Asian grocery/coffee shop, some public toilets and a small gold history area. We grabbed a coffee (without a doubt the worst coffee I’ve ever had), completed an Ad Lab focussed on the gold era, drove past the new Chinese garden and then headed out of town. It was odd, it was interesting but without the Ad Lab I cannot say it had a great deal to offer. EXCEPT for the teapot house! And the eccentric dude on a bicycle wishing us “the top of the morning”.

We drove on to Hokitika Gorge, which is absolutely 100% worth visiting. The gorge has an easy 1 hr/2 km  circular walk around the gorge. It is crossed by several boardwalks and suspension bridges and had many areas to view the milky turquoise water flowing along the granite walls of the gorge. It was stunning. The tall forest trees, ferns, moss and lichen of the surrounding forest were lush and provided a wonderful canopy. It was a gentle amble but the reason it takes the hour is because you stop every 50 metres to take more photos. Ian climbed the rocks at one point whilst I remained firmly on solid ground. We also spotted a few weka in the car park.

We headed back into Hokitika which locals describe as their ‘Cool Little Town’. It is a seaside town that has an arty, historic feel to it. We really liked it. We had 2 Ad Labs available to complete and did both as the town was so fabulous. One took us along the beach front to view some quirky little sculptures and the other explored the shipping history. We stumbled across the annual Driftwood and Sand sculpture event which finished two days ago. Here both locals and artists were encouraged to express themselves using only items found in the beach … stones, driftwood, seaweed, rubbish. It was an absolute fluke that we found it (again because an Ad Lab took us to the area to answer a clue). We spent half an hour wandering the beach looking at the entries and seeing which ones had been awarded prizes. Our biggest disappointment was the horrible black sandy beach. We are used to golden sand and the beach here was a greyish black which made the crashing waves look grungy.

Lunch was a very nice pie from a local bakery, sitting on a book chair, looking at another series of art installations in a lane connecting the shopping strip to the beach. We grabbed some photos from the Main Street - like the historic clock tower which sits in the middle of a roundabout. We then farewelled Hokitika and headed further north towards Shantytown.

Shantytown is located in Rutherglen which is about 20 minutes south of Greymouth. It is a recreated gold rush village. The streets are lined with old shops, a church, school, the hospital, foundry and saloon. For my Victorian friends it was like a baby Sovereign Hill. We rode a train out to the historic sawmill, watched a sluicing demonstration, Ian panned for gold (we are now rich), and we ate ice creams (I had Hokey Pokey, Ian had Pinky Winky!). It was a very enjoyable visit.

We headed towards Greymouth, our final destination for today. We grabbed the first 3 clues of an Ad lab before checking in to our accomodation, and got the remaining 2 when we headed out for dinner. We completed two other Ad Labs which took us on a scenic tour of Greymouth and I think I can safely say that we were both fairly underwhelmed. It seems to lack life and vitality. The streets were empty, there was little evidence of people and houses were often run down and needing some love. Despite that, the Ad Labs allowed us to see some areas of Greymouth we would never have seen. We struggled to find anywhere to eat dinner so resorted to picking up pizza and heading back to the hotel.

Today’s tally …

Photos taken … 350

Steps walked … 13,059

Kms walked … 9.97 km

Ad Labs completed … 7