Wild West Coast NZ

Mar. 12-- After Nelson, I rented a car and drove down the west coast of the South Island. Buller Gorge was stunning. Stopped at Lyell, to look around at a park/reststop that used to be a gold miners town. Now it's gone. Just some edu-ma-kashun-el signs, showing there used to be buildings on a muddy road, that is now a paved highway.

Next stop was Westport, nothing there but a stop at the grocery. On the way back to the main road (Hwy 6), I spotted the hitchhiker I'd seen on the way in. The young guy was now getting out of car that had given him only a 5-km ride to the turn off.

He'd obviously been hiking, his huge muddy boots were tied to the outside of hs pack, and his feet were bare. I stopped. He was from Nelson, just finished the Heaphy Track, and going to Hokitika to see his parents. I said I'd give him a lift as far as Punakaiki. And off we went.

I was glad to have the company, as the radio wasn't functioning out in the boondooks and I had no CDs with me.

At Punakaiki, we stopped. I promised I'd pick him up again, if he didn't catch a ride before my return from a short walk in the park. And he went to stand at the side of the road. I didn't see him again, even though I looked on the roadside and later in Hokitika.

The pancake rocks at Punakaiki stack themselves up like, well... a stack of pancakes. Craggy pinnacles, some topped with flax, a rock bridge that still supports tourists, all being crashed into by huge waves.


Drove on to Greymouth, looped through town a couple times, but it was getting to be late afternoon and shops were closed. This is supposedly the "wild west" of New Zealand, the last frontier they had, and it has that feel: late-1800s buildings, the saloon on the corner, all supported by resource extraction (they had gold fields along the coast), just lacking the tumbleweeds of the American west.



Coming into Hokitika, had to cross two one-lane bridge (no biggie, there's tons of those) that were also the railway bridges!! Ack. Decided to spend the night at a hostel there, as I felt too nervous to just go out and camp by myself. Seems a luxury, a room to myself (though it had a bunkbed, was all mine).


Went to the movie "Vicky Christina Barcelona" at the little theater, a heritage bldg made into a single room movie house, with a wine bar, and packed with comfy couches. Not to worry about getting a good seat.The owner/ticket taker/server let me in, and it was almost just me, until a woman showed up at last minute.