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Day 18 Westport to Hokitika 26-02-16
Today we have a short drive to Hokitika where it is planned for Paul, Trev, Lis & John to take a plane journey over the local glaciers, with a chance to land and walk around on the glaciers themselves… As Pat & Dee do not wish to do this, for them it is a trip to a Jade "factory" where they have a chance to make their own jewellery !! It is almost a shame to leave the wonderful property that was our "house" last night !! We only have a short journey so we can have a few stops on the way with time to look around, possibly the beaches etc. and the odd bit of food and drink (again) !! As we hand back the key we tell the owner what we intend to do tomorrow and he says he hopes the weather will be ok as it is not forecast to be good.. If this is the case the flight will be cancelled !! However, we set off in high spirits as the weather for today was not good but it actually is shining brightly !! As there is no rush we can trundle along the road at a nice steady sedate pace and enjoy the surrounding scenery ! Dee is intently looking at the map and spots what could be a good stop off point to have a look at some rock formations at a place called Punakaiki and they are named Pancake Rock Blowholes… It did not take long to get there and we managed to park the van in a nice cool shady place. As we walked through the entrance the crescendo of noise from the cicadas was ear splitting.. Also with the large overhanging trees it was more like a rain forest than a beach side wood !! A little further the path we saw what all the fuss was about. The way that the rock has been eroded by the wind, rain and waves makes them look as though they are a stack of pancakes - hence the name… They had some really spectacular formations and we could not take enough photos. Have spared you all the boredom in the album as photos do not show just how it looks for real !!! We took about an hour just wandering round, photographing everything, watching the waves crash through holes carved into the rocks, creating rainbows in the spray and sounding like huge gun fire !! Towards the end we were walking towards the exit when we suddenly became aware of the "silence" !! The only noise was the breeze and very faint cicadas cricketing in the distance… Bliss… it didn't last long though, as we walked through the exit we were back into the real noise… Time for a cup of tea, we all walked into the gift shop… no tea here but the "girls" were in their element.. "boys" bored, wandered off to find the café, which they did, and waited for the "girls" to finish their "shopping"…This done we tramp into the café and peruse the menu…. A STACK OF PANCAKES !! Well what else would you expect ? ? We just had to have some of those !! It's a strange thing but someone on high m ust be watching over us on this holiday !! We have had so many "lucky escapes" and today was no different.. Just after we had ordered and sat down to wait 2 coaches/buses of traveling students cascaded onto the cafe and the queues grew massively to give a much longer waiting time.... Phew got away with that one .... A few stacks of very yummy pancakes later, our drinks consumed and everyone very happy it was back into the van and on the road again.. We had managed to kill nearly 2 hours time and decided to make our way straight to Hokitika !! Again it was not that far so we took our time and had a good look at the countryside as it sailed by mile after mile !! Yet again Paul managed to find some road works on a hill in the middle of nowhere !!
As we neared Hokitika, out came the ipad, and we got straight to today's "house" without any problems at all !! Reversing into the drive we spotted that all of the windows were open.. Strange we thought !! Then a lady appeared and said she was sorry but check in was not until 4 o'clock !! It was only 2 o'clock now so we had some more time to kill !! We went into 'town' and drove around to see what was there.. After a short while we parked up outside an old public library, which is now a museum dedicated to the history of the town itself !! Funnily enough we saw a "Fire Station" right next door and Trev suffered endless teasing again about it !! However, it was not really a fire station anymore but was now a wine shop.. It did have one of the old "green goddess" engines inside but it was painted black and was filled with barrels of wine.. All around were shelves stacked high with bottles of wine … Decision was made to walk around the museum and take in a little of the history.. this done we then wandered around the town a bit more to look at the shops and for the "girls" to browse around… as luck would have it, whilst Trev, John & Paul were waiting for the "girls" to reappear, wailing sirens were heard in the distance.. What emergency could this be ?? As it drew nearer we saw it was a Fire Engine… Trev taking more flak… GET A PHOTO FOR THE BOYS…. Trev ignored us so Paul took some for Trev's old mates…LOL…( one of the photos of the fire engine passing had a very unfortunate young lady standing waiting to cross the road ??? ) A couple of minutes another engine screamed past.. it seemed odd as they did not seem to go far around the road before turning off the sirens.. No Smoke or anything visible.. it was surmised that perhaps they were late for tea, shift knocking off time, perhaps a drill run or something of that nature..?? Curiosity got the better of us and we walked around the corner to find out what the commotion was about… Would you believe it… two fire engines with full crew and all it was for was someone in an hotel had burned the toast !!! Over reaction or what.. Trev just could not resist the temptation to go and have a chat with the crews !! Its in the blood apparently ???? Realising that there was no great action to see we went across the road to a bar/restaurant called "Stumpers" .. and had a quick drink or 3 !!! Stumpers is a funny name we thought until we saw how the tables had been made, then it became obvious !!! During our drinks Dee asked what people would like to eat and the "boys" decided that pies were a good idea so off the "girls" went to the bakery !! When they got back it was time to head off to the "house"… reversed in, found the key box, used the code, got the key, and realised that we could not actually use the 'front door' so round the back we went and unpacked the van yet again !! Went like well oiled machinery !! Bags in rooms, food in cupboards, time to walk to the end of the garden and see how far the beech was away… about 10 meters was the answer.. Brilliant.. right at the bottom of the garden.. quick walk on the sand and search for some washed up jade.. there was acres and acres of drift wood all along the sand as far as the eye could see in either direction.. waves crashing in onto the sand, it was idyllic..we had found another good stop over "house"…
After a few more glasses of wine, bailey's, bottles of Bundaberg Ginger beer and a really good home cooked meal it was time to settle down, blog writing, facetiming, faceache checking, camera battery and card checking, pebble choosing and tele watching all in preparation for tomorrow's exploits……
- comments
Dickie Stumpers was a good choice. Don't forget the Kiwi sanctuary and if you have time and the energy the Glow-worm caves just on the north end of town. Happy flying.