Heritage Highway Motel Hokitika

... pants' in NZ: they're called 'undies'. Which doesn't begin with a 'P'. Which kinda defeated the Point. Oh well, we had fun, got some random (drink I promise! I don't think it helped that we were drinking white (basically yellow) wine) stains on said item, got a wee bit tipsy. Plus, the English people understood, so it was all fine. Fun times.

... considering there isn't really anything THERE for tourists to see or do. So we gladly took the opportunity to recover further and work on our travelblog (Is everyone enjoying it still? :P). Just like in every other place we have stayed at so far, in Westport we also had to check out before 10am. WHY this is the case everywhere, we don't know. We are used to check-out times of 11am or even noon, both of which are quite nice and ...

... full effect. Unfortunately we made it there at low tide and a six hour wait didn't fit into our schedule. They were still impressive. Finally at Hokitika we gathered information and over a coffee decided to book a glacier walk (Franz Josef) for two days time. As we were both feeling exhausted, we had our first evening of relative relaxation even though Kirsty became productive and submitted a job application. Although supposed downtime there was no rest for the wicked!

... they were really thirsty! the barman started to get worried as his beer was running out so he decided to mix lemonade with it and took a risk....but the cyclists found it really refreshing....so radler (which actually means bicycle in whichever language the country this happened in spoke) was born! funny though that i could actually taste the burnt toast flavour in the black beer!! then we got to pull our own glass of our favourite! pretty good to ...

... the emblem of a national institution - do yo know which one? We shared a meal with Alison and her husband Glen (who was working his way through a 28,000 piece jigsaw - honestly, 28,000 and with a lot of pieces that seemed to be just green) and learned a lot about Greymouth life. We then sat with them in their lounge and watched a DVD of Andre Rieu (look him up!) whilst carrying on chatting. At breakfast we met ...

... zu lassen und hab mir mit dem Hollaender, den ich auf dem Weg dahin gefunden habe, die lusten Pancake Rocks und Blowholes (bei Flut wird das Wasser durch die Blowholes gedrueckt und es entstehen lustige Fontaenen. Leider war Ebbe...) angeguckt! Auch gut . Danach kam dann leider das grosse Unwetter und nu sitz ich hier schon den vierten Tag? ich weiss es gar nicht mehr so genau (OK das Unwetter war nur Gestern und Heute) in Greymouth und warte auf besseres Wetter...

... from their layered structure but more impressive was the way they are undermined and attacked by the sea; occasional larger waves resulting in enough pressure to force jets of water upwards like giant foundtains to above the level of the cliff-tops (themselves a good 30 feet above the sea). Although we only saw relatively small spurts having arrived near low tide, the show was still worth a look. Less successful was our venture along the nearby Punakaiki Cavern ...

... was trying to do wee bit of improvisation. It wasn't that she was being a bit 'free', she was simply out of tune - unless of course she was deliberately going for random quarter tones ... Anyway, free or not I moved on to the supermarket! This night was my first night in a dorm. From a budget point of view, I'd decided that where I was spending more than one night in a hostel I would treat myself to my own room, but if I was only staying one night I would go in a dorm ...

... the little village looked like a fairytail scene. We met the local wildlife - the Kea. A large parrot that lives on the snow line year round. They were very friendly and pretty. We jumped back in the bus for the trip down the mountains to Greymouth. As quickly as we went up, we were back into the other side of the valley. We arrived in town and made our way to the motel we were ...

... mijn wooffing-boerderij wat receptjes meegekregen. Daar naast hadden we natuurlijk een goede avondmaaltijd, champagne en wat lekkers nodig.... Afijn, uiteindelijk bleek dat we zoveel gekocht hadden, dat onze achterbak tot de nok toe vol zat. :-D<br><br>Daarna zijn we naar Ross gereden en onderweg begon het te regenen... <br>Een eindje ten zuiden van Ross, aan een kleine rivier, stond ons hostel. Het was van oudsher een kerk, die ze via een een "simpel ...