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The drive from Franz Josef to Greymouth took about 2 and a half hours and not much to report, just the usual twisty turny roads. We had booked an evening at a hostel there called Noah's Ark as I wanted to wake up in an actual bed on my birthday as opposed to another evening in the Spaceship! Had a lovely double room with a massive comfy bed, TV and DVD player, aptly named the Cat Room with appropriate decorations everywhere! Could have been worse - there was also the Pig Room, Cow Room and Sheep Room amongst many others! Showered and chilled out for a bit there watching TV before getting ready for dinner - went to Bonsai Pizzeria which was really really good and the pizzas were too big even for Dan! Got a takeaway box, had a few more drinks and then braved the SERIOUSLY cold outdoors again to head back to the hostel for a DVD. I did my usual and fell asleep after half an hour, woke up 10 minutes before the end and asked loads of questions! Dan stayed up until 3 am to watch the British Lions rugby while I celebrated the first few minutes of my (NZ!) birthday before promptly passing out :o)
Sun 21st my 23rd BIRTHDAY! Woke up about quarter to 9 and went to call Adam as promised with a new super cheap phonecard. Came back to the room and Bim gave me my grand total of TWO cards and a present! ;o) One of the cards had been smuggled into his luggage by my Mum and although saying we wouldn't do presents due to lack of spare funds, got WALL-E on DVD lol. Checked out by 10 and went for breakfast at a place called Cafe 124, as recommended by the guide book - another result for the Rough Guide! I had amazingly sickly french toast with bacon, bananas and shedloads of maple syrup whilst Bim played it safe with a bacon sarnie, albeit with "slabs" of bacon! Replete, we headed back to the car and set off for Punakaiki, via the supermarket for Bim to get some bits and bobs (I wonder what that could be in aid of?!?)
Arrived at the Pancake Rocks fairly speedily as they are only about 40km north of Greymouth. The drive was beautiful though, very scenic along the coast. Parked up and crossed the road to the 20 minute loop walk around the rocks - good views of the sea and actually very interesting rock formation, immediately apparent why they had been given their name! We weren't there for high tide (9am or 9.30pm) so didn't get to see the blowholes in action but the sea crashing through was pretty cool too - the rocks are undermined by huge sea caverns hence how the blowholes work but the surf surging in produced a fairly similar though less spectacular effect. We took lots of pictures before heading back to the Spaceship where whilst I had bought a drink in the cafe, Dan had prepared a mini birthday table complete with balloons and boysenberry cheesecake with 23 candles! :o) Actually felt a bit more like my birthday now!
We still had until 4 before we could check in to Birds Ferry Lodge so decided to drive past it to Westport and find a nice cafe/internet/some sort of diversion however Westport on a Sunday turned out to be pretty dire...ghost town with one greasy spoon open! Headed out towards Cape Foulwind (good name huh?!) to see the Seal Colony and lighthouse and some cool views. Had leftover pizza for lunch, a short walk and then read for a bit. By this time we could escape from Westport to where we were staying this evening, keeping our eyes peeled for the turn off as it is 1.7km down an unmade road off the highway. Arrived at a beautiful house and greeted by two crazy little terriers who I attempted not to mow down. Alison, the owner, welcomed us in and showed us round; the guests side of the house was huge with a lovely big lounge, open fire and then decking overlooking the sea and hinterland and our room was beautifully decorated with sliding doors out on to the decking and a HOT TUB!! Most excitingly for the first time in 3 months there was a bath! Phoned my Mum for a bit on Skype before taking advantage of the bath and not reappearing for a good hour - not that Dan had noticed as he had found the guest laptop in the lounge and was happily occupied with BBC Sport! Headed out for dinner around 7 to a place recommended by Andre and Alison called the Denniston Dog, a fairly posh gastropub which despite our initial reservation about Westport was not only nice but OPEN! ;o) Ordered flatbread to start and then delicious scallops for me and pork belly for Dan with some lovely Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Only stayed out until about half 9 and after speaking to my Dad we jumped in the hot tub and turned out the lights to fully appreciate the hundreds and hundreds of seriously bright stars and again spied the Milky Way. A suitably perfect end to a really good day....and what with the 11 hour time difference I wasn't going to let it finish just yet!
Woke up the following morning (Mon 22nd) at 8 to have breakfast - WELL worth the early start and put any continental breakfast I have ever encountered to shame. Jugs of freshly squeezed juices, all sorts of different teas, freshly baked bread and croissants, home made muesli and different jams plus cocktail glasses of natural yoghurt and fresh kiwi. DELICIOUS! Checked our emails and packed up to leave by 10 for the drive to Hamner Springs. Arrived by lunchtime and rocked up at a Kiwi Holiday Park there to park up in the Spaceship for $26. We were the only ones there! Not complaining though as it meant we had all the showers, toilets and kitchen to ourselves! Headed back into central Hamner to find some food and ended up having a massive lunch at a really cool cafe on the high street. On top of feta corn fritters with bacon, salsa and sour cream and a steak sarnie for Bim we also managed chocolate caramel marshmallow cookies!! Went to the supermarket for dinner supplies and found the only internet booth in town in the post office (!) to book whale watching in Kaikoura on Wednesday. Spent some time reading the guide book before going to the Hamner Springs spa, the reason for our detour here! They are a series of hot pools from the natural springs in a cool setting - mountains as the backdrop! A number of the rock pools are all interlinked so had fun floating through them and gradually building up from the lower temperatures of 30c to the sulphur pools of 42c (however they did stink of egg). The coldest was the swimming pool of 28c which Bim thought would be a good detour from 35c to 40c and it felt absolutely freezing! Spent from about 4 until 6.30 there before getting showered and heading back to the campsite. Cooked some pasta for dinner and watched Crash in the Spaceship.
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