Bella Vista Motel Greymouth South Island

... of souvenirs (and some fudge for me!). As we hadn't planned to visit here we took some advice and went to visit Hokitika Gorge. After a short drive and a walk over a swing bridge we were rewarded with the view of a gorgeous river, complete with snow capped mountain back drop. The river azure blue due to the glacier water creating it.

We headed back to Greymouth to spend the night.

Next morning was our knife making adventure in Barrytown. I wanted to do ...

... people or so it feels, along the west coast of the South Island were we made (MADE) necklaces out of cowes bone that has a specific Maori meaning. Four hours of intensive sanding but very awesome. Would have loved to have kept it but it's bad mojo and I can't have that! At night we had a taste of the nightlife by dressing up, guys as girls and girls as guys. I have to say I made a very impressive hombre (unfortunatly or maybe better, no pictorial evidence) with ...

... the beach, Louise was stopped by a woman who proclaimed "you're the lady with the black jacket" referring to Louise's padded down jacket and wanting to know where she'd bought it. Apparently Louise had been clocked as having a padded jacket which provides a modicum of shape rather than as the lady explained "her padded jacket which does little to enhance a bag of potatoes".

What more can I say....I have a fashionable wife!

... bout doing that instead. I thought it would be cool to have a necklace of something that i carved myself but the thought of carving cow bone and wearing it round my neck just didnt appeal to me. But i went along to the workshop anyway to have a look. There you were able to do more arty things with the carving as it was much easier to carve. But when i found out the price i decided i didnt want to spend $55 on something i wasnt that keen on doing.

So ...

... was so sweet to see everyone carefully crafting their necklace. I didn't think many people would enjoy doing this but they all loved it and were so careful and dedicated to their task, I found it very sweet and it made me really happy actually. Don't know why, it was just sweet to see everyone (including me) being really happy to do something like that. It was like we were all children again at school doing craft work! It was a good feeling. And it is time ...

... walk around the limestone and mudstone rocks that the sea has erroded at different rates so that they look like huge stacks of pancakes!! there are a few surge pools, that at high tide fill as the waves crash in and cause water to shoot up holes in the rocks, called blowholes! but i missed high tide (by quite a while oops as it was raining i ended up not going until about 7pm!) but, again, like the seals we went up with the bus the next day!! was really glad that we did ...

... the limestone rocks have formed into what looks like stacks of thin pancakes. There are also blowholes that squirt out at high tide, and even though we showed up at high tide, we didn't see too much action. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling and hanging out at the beach, which reminded me a lot of a typical beach on the Washington coast with lots of seashells, driftwood and rocky, muddy sand.

... of the bought ones are as good as the ones we made, but back in the UK it'll be fairly unique again. With bone carving done, we headed back to the pub to check out at 12:30. Others had just got up, but some had been to the very remote beach to walk and take a look for Jade from which many carvings and jewellery here are also made. With that, we headed off for Franz Joseph. To be continued in part 3.

... the dark too, and we
stalked their voices back out of the park, which was probably creepy
for them.


7:00
PM - We checked in right next door at the Punakaiki Resort, a beautiful
complex of hotels, chalets, eco condos all on the ocean front. We made ...

... hier en wauw.... Ik met mijn ding voor stenen in het water.... Het water spatte echt enorm hoog en golf na golf bleef binnenrollen in de wihrlpools die in duizenden jaren zijn uitgesleten in de rotsen.
Ook de begroeiing is erg apart: hoewel je altijd foto's ziet van kale Pancake Rocks, zijn ze eigenlijk grotendeels gewoon begroeid met varens en andere tropische gewassen.

's Middags een planning gemaakt ...