Gables Motor Lodge Greymouth

... about 6 hours, only stopping for lunch for 10 minutes! It was a killer! There were some great views from the track though, and some lovely beaches along the way. I can imagine in summer it would be gorgeous, just a pity it was a bit too chilly for us to get our swimming costumes on!


Punakaiki, Greymouth & Hokitika
We recovered from the Abel Tasman track in a campsite about an hour south of the national park and the next day made our ...

... on the cliffs where layers of hard and soft sediments had been weathered into strange formations.

Greymouth has nothing really going for it from a tourist point of view. It is an old mining town which still survives on mining and reminded me of the west coast of Cumbria. The main town is on Maori ground and recently the Maori have hiked up the rents which has forced a lot of businesses to close (apparently), it is a hard place with problems. I dropped ...

... each, I think Josh thought he was going to find huge chunks of it!). After taking lots of pictures and letting the kids buy some lollies in the old fashioned lolly shop (note: not old fashioned prices, but not as expensive as they could have been either) we headed back to Greymouth for the afternoon. On arrival to the 5th wheel we discovered what rain was like on the West Coast... A young ...

I joined the West Coast Trip this weekend which is actually a 2-day trip instead of just a Saturday activity since it is about a four hour drive from Oxford. On the way there we stopped in Arthur's Pass, Greymouth, and at a few lookout points before arriving in Punakaiki. Upon arrival in Punakaiki, we saw the famous Pancake Rocks which sometimes have blow-holes at high tide, but we were not able to ...

... lentement (50km/h en moyenne), l'avantage, c'est qu'on peut aller dans des wagons ''ouverts'', ca cest sympa... Et aussi on prend tout notre temps pour admirer le paysage... C'est sympa parfois de prendre son temps... ( cf Sinsemilia qui decrit notre vie parisienne: ''Comme dans une course, a la fois sprint et marathon, toujours a fond, toujours a fond, oblige de tenir bon...'')

... mustard.....delicious!!! if i do say so myself! then the next day i was booked onto the monteith's brewery tour at 11:30am! (bit early i know!) but it was pretty cool despite having a rubbish tour guide! saw all the huge stainless steel fermenting tanks, ageing tanks and actually saw some beer that was bubbling away in the tanks as the yeast did its magic! tasted the different grains that they use in their 7 different beers, including one that ...

... we were much nearer to high tide that i saw the blow holes!! really cool they were and the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks under your feet was impressive! i thought it sounded a lot like how i would imagine bombs going off in the distance would sound like....such a great din! got some good pics of them when the waves were right for the blow holes to go off! then off with the bus to greymouth! i really like punakaiki, even though there wasnt much there!!

19 & 20/12/2008 South Island Introductions Picton is a relatively small town with not a huge amount to do - its key feature and benefit of course is that it's the port of entry to most people coming to the South Island. After a quick look round we headed for Nelson - a larger town and region famous for vineyards and wineries. It was a nice drive through and we arrived after a couple of hours. The town was okay, but not a huge amount to do unless ...

... was in order. It was a simple theme as there weren't many clothes to choose from, so men dressed as women and women dressed as men. Lorna became a Manchester geezer from the nineties complete with drawn on goatee beard - sorted! I became some Dirty Death Nurse complete with uniform and marigold glove! It actually felt a little too comfortable at times!! It did make toilet time a little confusing that's for sure. The drinks flowed all night as well, especially during happy hour.

... passed quite nicely and it turned out to be a good night (when is it ever anything but a good night when Twister is involved?! The locals came in too and most of them were absolutely crazy - there was even a rumour they were all high on coke - but they were such characters. Out of the visiters, I was the last one standing and remained in the bar experiencing these nutcases for a few hours more - it was gone 4am when I finally clambered into my top bunk!