Saturday 20th November: woken gently by the resident Tui and Bell Bird population, accompanied by the sound of more rain. It wasn’t too bad so we went for a short walk on Gillespies Beach (see previous post) where the sea was quite stormy with plenty of spray, before retracing our route along the twisty lane through the rain forest to Highway 6, meeting with a temporary road blockage on the way.
It was clear that there would be no glacier flights today so we took the road up to Franz Joseph Glacier, but it was raining so hard that we elected not to complete the half hour walk to get ‘views’ or the 2 hour walk to reach the face, especially as we had been advised that Fox and Franz Joseph are very similar in structure.
So we headed north on Highway 6 through Whataroa, Harihari and Ross to Hokitika where we spent some time visiting the various factory shops (The Jade Factory, a local crafts co-op, The Possum Shop....). The journey had been very wet with us driving through rain when we were close to sea level, or cloud as soon as we rose a few metres. The West Coast Road plunges in and out of bays giving fabulous scenery, it being very atmospheric with the spray from the crashing sea, the rain and the low cloud. However, the views of the adjacent mountains were almost totally obscured by the cloud and rain.
We headed on north towards Greymouth, crossing the Taramakau River just after Kumara Junction via a single lane bridge which also had the railway running down the same single lane! Fortunately, no train came along as there seemed to be no formal control on the bridge.
We passed Greymouth where there had been an explosion in a coal mine the previous day with nearly 30 miners trapped. We did not stop here as we had spent a little time exploring when we visited on the Transalpine when we were based at Christchurch, but continued to Punakaiki where we visited the Pancake Rocks. These are so named as they have been built up of layers of rock over the millennia and appear something like stacks of pancakes. The weather and sea have been eroding these and some amazing formations are now present.
In the car park here there was a Weka, these are less daring than the Keas which we had seen in Fiordland and did not hang around long enough for a photograph!
After dinner we went for a stroll on the beach. The sea had quietened a bit and it remained dry so we walked for a while on the grey-whack sand, finding a number of jelly fish and the usual range of washed up bits of tree that seem to occur here. As I write this I can hear the local bird population tuning up outside ready for our early call in the morning....
It was clear that there would be no glacier flights today so we took the road up to Franz Joseph Glacier, but it was raining so hard that we elected not to complete the half hour walk to get ‘views’ or the 2 hour walk to reach the face, especially as we had been advised that Fox and Franz Joseph are very similar in structure.
So we headed north on Highway 6 through Whataroa, Harihari and Ross to Hokitika where we spent some time visiting the various factory shops (The Jade Factory, a local crafts co-op, The Possum Shop....). The journey had been very wet with us driving through rain when we were close to sea level, or cloud as soon as we rose a few metres. The West Coast Road plunges in and out of bays giving fabulous scenery, it being very atmospheric with the spray from the crashing sea, the rain and the low cloud. However, the views of the adjacent mountains were almost totally obscured by the cloud and rain.
We headed on north towards Greymouth, crossing the Taramakau River just after Kumara Junction via a single lane bridge which also had the railway running down the same single lane! Fortunately, no train came along as there seemed to be no formal control on the bridge.
We passed Greymouth where there had been an explosion in a coal mine the previous day with nearly 30 miners trapped. We did not stop here as we had spent a little time exploring when we visited on the Transalpine when we were based at Christchurch, but continued to Punakaiki where we visited the Pancake Rocks. These are so named as they have been built up of layers of rock over the millennia and appear something like stacks of pancakes. The weather and sea have been eroding these and some amazing formations are now present.
In the car park here there was a Weka, these are less daring than the Keas which we had seen in Fiordland and did not hang around long enough for a photograph!
Before moving on we did a map/campsite check as we needed a ‘proper’ campsite tonight and found a nice sounding site at Carters Beach near Westport, just along from a Seal Colony (trip for the morning!). We tried ringing ahead as we were later than usual but as so often there was no mobile signal, so we pressed on instead passing by Meybille Bay, Hatters Bay and Woodpecker Bay before turning inland at Charleston. We were soon skirting Westport and picked up the campsite signs. We need not have worried as there was plenty of space, and as a bonus the rain stopped before we arrived.
After dinner we went for a stroll on the beach. The sea had quietened a bit and it remained dry so we walked for a while on the grey-whack sand, finding a number of jelly fish and the usual range of washed up bits of tree that seem to occur here. As I write this I can hear the local bird population tuning up outside ready for our early call in the morning....
And here's our home.....
No comments:
Post a Comment