Kaikoura

A sunny day in Kaikoura - perfect for a long walk from the bus at South Bay over the neck of the peninsula, along the waterfront (lunch at an old pub) along to Fyffe Quay, then along the coastal walkway back to the bus. Four hours including lunch   This is the bus by the race course.

Sculpture along the waterfront.

View north up the coast - lots of exposed rocks since the earthquake.

The quay

Lunch at the old pub by the quay.

Along the peninsula walkway.

Heading towards South Bay, looking down the coast.

Maori gateway at start/finish of walkway.

Working on digging out the harbour so the boats can get in and out after the earthquake raised the seabed.

Molesworth Station

Today we spent 7 and 1/2 hours driving through Molesworth Station - NZ's biggest at 180,787 hectares (the size of Stewart Island). A huge, empty mountain-surrounded series of valleys. We had a picnic lunch at Molesworth cob cottage (unfortunately damaged by the earthquake - as was the one at Acheron - so we couldn't look inside. On the way back we climbed up a track to a trig lookout (1279 metres) - straight up! That's our exercise for today

 

Acheron Accommodation House built 1862.  We couldn't go in because of earthquake damage to the structure.

Suspension Bridge

Suspension bridge from along the river bank

Along the road. It takes 2 hours to drive between Acheron and Molesworth cob cottages without stopping but we stopped at the shelters (with info panels) and to look around. Plus the hours walk up to the trig and back. The road is unsealed so we were VERY dusty when we got back to Hanmer Springs.

Molesworth cob cottage  built 1866

On the walk up to the trig.

Malcolm at the trig...

...and that's the road we came up from.

Reefton

This is the hangout of the 'Bearded Miners'at Reefton.  They (3 old bearded guys) have an old miner's slab hut with a coal fire inside.  Once your eyes get used to the dark you can see all the stuff they have inside - it's a cross between a museum and an old bloke's shed.  They had made a batch of scones on the griddle which were warm and nice.  We talked about what it was like living in a hut like that and one of the guys said his house is pretty similar :-)  

Later we did a walk in the mountains overlooking the town.  First we walked up to an old water pipeline then up to an old bush tramway.  We met a guy clearing the path and he told us he had cleared the whole track, it had been overgrown since they stopped using the water supply here in 1953.  He had put in some steps around an old slip.  It must be his life's work.

I suppose the guy (we forgot to ask his name) found these things when working on the track.  We were hoping he'd be there when we walked back so we could ask him some more questions but he was gone.

Some of the track was pretty narrow.

There were also quite a lot of waterfalls.

Coastal drive

We drove (by car) the coastal road from Greymouth to Westport - it is one of the top ten coastal drives in the world according to Lonely Planet and it has lots of great views.  Last time we were here we were driving the bus and there aren't many places to park a bus to get photos.

Of course we stopped at Punakaiki to look around the pancake rocks and get a coffee.

This was our lunch café in Westport.  Great artwork of birds and the light shades and tables had the same pohutakawa motif as in the background of the bird pictures.  Different from the 'westie' ambience elsewhere :-)

West Coast Wilderness Trail

A nice sunny day today so we headed out to Ross and cycled part of the West Coast Wilderness Trail (we did 2 other parts when we were on the west coast the other year). A good 3 hour ride, part rail trail, part an old logging tramway, boardwalks and some on the roads (which we don't like but can't avoid).  This is the old railway bridge at Ross.

On the old railway line, straight and flat.

The start of the Mananui Tramline Section...

...me disappearing round the corner...

Lots of info...

through the bush...

past an old sawmilling area...

onto a long boardwalk through wetlands.

This was yesterday - a rainy morning but the sun came out after lunch.

Hokitika

Grey-white sky this morning.  We drove north to Hokitika past lots of snow covered mountains...

...with a temperature to match.

Dressed in our winter clothes felt quite cosy looking around Hokitika.  It is like having a winter holiday!  Back on the bus this afternoon it began to rain again....

Franz Joseph Glacier

Yay! Blue skies this morning so we walked up to see the Franz Joseph Glacier. This glacier has retreated SO much in the last 5 years! We did 2 other walks, so 3 hours walking before lunch. Then we decided to go to the hot pools for a soak. A few minutes after we took the photos it began to hail heavily!!!! Then there was a monsoon of rain before it cleared up again. I've never been in hot pools in the rain before.

The walk up the valley is about 1 and 1/2 hrs return - sunny but very cold air coming off the glacier. 

The glacier was way past here 5 years ago.

100 years ago the glacier was behind this lake.

Very nice warm hot pools just before the hail storm.