Gables Motor Lodge Greymouth

... bit - to explain the NZPD title - on the way down from Picton I was booked for speeding- twice in less than an hour and a half!! Some sort of a record eh?<br>The first time was just outside a place called Nelson, I was doing 128ks in a 100k limit.. 230 dollar fine - Exactly 1 hour and 17 minutes later I was nicked again, 111ks in an 80k limit - 300 dollar fine ... That was total b***ocks, I was never going that fast.<br>The police were ...

... of years that apparently resemble a stack of pancakes., however in reality, the pancakes are carved into intricate undulating structures. Our final destination was the small town of Greymouth on the coast where we settled for the evening. I cooked Fiona's Pasta Surprise - a wonderful dish comprising of bacon, leeks, mushrooms and curry powder that was actually invented by Fiona's mother - which was delicious as usual and prayed for warmth. <br><br>Things will only get colder I'm told...

After seeing the glaciers, I thought my adventures were over and all I had left to do was watch boring scenery and go to Bali. Driving North towards Nelson, I took the more scenic route by the ocean. There were a lot of small towns where i could use the rest room or get petrol, so it wasn't all trees, ocean, and such. I came across the famous pancake rock even! I actually thought they were somthine different. I thought they would be these huge flat rocks along a ...

... up on cheap food as we are now running over our original budget. We get fuel too and get on the road, keen to stick to the speed limits after Australia and finding out we have little choice as the van will barely do 80kph. We head up the main highway to Kaikora (or good lobster) for the sea Kayaking. Once we are there we head straight to the Seal colony, lazy fur seals line the shoreline and we stand within a few feet of them as they bask in the sunshine. We head ...

... alpping up beneath them - to get the full glory though you need to be there at high tide with a bit of a swell brewing as well - my postcard i bought showed the blow hole at its best The seal colony was also an interesting stop even if it didn't deserve the big build up from the driver who warned against getting too close to the seals or getting water side of them cos they'd attack you - as it turned uot we ...

... para turistas. CZ: Do Punakaiki jsme dorazili az vecer, cestou se pokazilo pocasi a zacalo lejt. Lilo celou noc a rano to v kempu vypadalo jak po tsunami. I pres to jsme se vydali ke skalam Punakaiki Pankake Rocks, ktere jsou hned na pobrezi, a svym tvarem pripominaji livance naskladane do kominku. Nastesti po ceste prestalo prset, a tak jsme absolvovali kratkou prochazku a skaly se nam docela libily, i kdyz se slunickem ...

... but to be honest, as it rains there 250 days per year, it's cold most of the time, and you are a good 4 hour difficult drive over mountains from any decent town, I think spending time in the library doesn't rate highly on their list. Anyway, Greymouth. I was picked up by the man from Neptunes who showed us around Greymouth. That took 2 minutes, and we were soon at the hostel which is on the edge of town. Greymouth sits on the mouth of the river ...

... amp; water coming up through the blow holes. This is one of the most amazing things - a must for any NZ travellers. The next morning we had a VVVVV early start as the rugby was on - Wales vs NZ - fortunately the pub 2 mins walk away was showing the action. With quite a few other Welsh supporters watching. Obviously not the best result, but was a good to watch it. Unfortunately it was still raining, but more driving today towards the glaciers.... xx

Wasn't a whole pile happenin in Greymouth really but we did get to stay in a cool hostel which had a fire and cool rooms. Shaun won the rock-paper-scissors to get the double bed so I wasn't too impressed with that. We went to a old gold mining town close to there the ...

... gross!!! Then we saw our first snow of the South Island, a good sign I hope, and onto Punakaiki. This is the place where the 'famous' pancake rocks and blowholes are! The rocks looked nothing like pancakes though, there wasn't even any syrup on them!!! lol!!! but they were pretty cool the was that they were all stacked up like that - I did get bloody soaked here though because of teh blow holes, they only blow big when it is high tide, and ...