Rosewood Bed & Breakfast Greymouth

... br>After checking into the motel at Greymouth, we made our way to the town centre for the Pancake rocks tour. It was just us and a guy named Mark from Nottingham (plus the tour man) on the trip. Mark was on a break from his band managing job who had finished touring.

We drove North where we walked through the sub-tropical rainforest and looked at some interesting flora. Then went down to the beech and had to run to the other coves between the big wave sets. That was a bit ...

... der Welt. Cool! ;-)
Patrick war Entwicklungsleiter bei Birkenstock und hat auch irgendwann die Reissleine gezogen. Er macht jetzt ein Jahr Work & Travel in Australien (plus ein bisschen extra Urlaub) und hat auch noch keine rechte Vorstellung, wie es danach weitergeht. Ideen mehr als genug (die kommen automatisch beim Reisen), aber noch nichts konkretes. 

Auf dem Rueckweg zum Cool Bananas treffe ich noch auf Mark, der auch bei mir im Zimmer ist ...

... the rain struck up again and we just didn't want to spend $100 on a hike through the rain. It was a big shame but its a lot of money to spend on being miserable and wet even if the scenery is amazing! Instead we drove up the the glacier car park and I went on a couple of short walks to see the glacier from afar and it was pretty cool. It was really cloudy and misty so the view wasn't great but it was still an amazing sight- very ice blue and dramatic!
We then headed of up the ...

... most of us went to the nearby caves where we were able to see about 30 glowworms. We also went spelunking through the top part of the cave which was really fun and muddy as well. We even painted war stripes on our cheeks with the mud from the cave walls. After that, we had a camp fire and roasted a few marshmallows. The next morning, I woke up early and walked back to where the Pancake Rocks were. It was a little bit rainy, but they sky ...

... een korte looptrack gedaan naar een waterval. In de avond heb ik nog even gepooled met iemand die we eerder tegengekomen waren (bij Castle Hill). Ze werkt in Greymouth bij een cave tour organisatie. We mochten morgen voor niks mee op een tour, dat werd dus vroeg naar bed! 27-02: Greymouth: Vroeg op voor de cave tour. Om 8 uur moesten we bij het gebouw van de organisatie zijn. We kregen wetsuits, schoenen en een helm en nog wat andere spullen om warm te blijven ...

... many feet in length and live up to 90+ years. After this we drove to the coast, which is constantly pounded by huge surf. At a beach, we took some photos and video of the violent waves - no swimming around these parts, that's for sure. In the evening, we went to see the famous "Pancake Rocks" in the Paparoa National Park. Luckily there was a break in the rain and ...

I kept going along the west coast line till I got to the city of Greymouth. There's nothing much to do there but I had to stop and say hello at the Duke Backpackers - A backpacker lodge managed by Shoshy & Dori, an Israeli couple that live there for quite a few years. From there I turned east and went up the norhtern alps towards Arthur's Pass.

... except someone has gone through and cut the soul out of it. Look great, very functional, all the pieces there, but something was missing. Nice all the same though.

Caught up with Malcom (cousin) for dinner, few games of pool and darts, then an early night.

Tomorrow we're off scarily early to catch the ferry to Wellington...

Yeah, not much happened today, so the only photo is of a road sign. :) meh.

... Another stop at Cape Foulwind to see the a large seal colony seals and to recreate the famous photographs at the fingerpost. Apparently it is closer to London than to Paris (not sure my spherical geometry can work this out, something to do with great circles or other) We saw Wekas for the first time, and ...