Travel Blog » Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Greymouth Travel Blogs

Background: The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars. New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to address longstanding Maori grievances.

New Zealand

Map of New Zealand

New Zealand's Flag

Hostels in New-Zealand
Latest Greymouth Blog Entries
Greymouth Photos

By MuzzaT
April 9th 2008

Brunner Coal Mine Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Miners Memorial Brunner

Greymouth's Brunner Coal Mine We were on our way to Blackball from Greymouth travelling alongside the Grey River when this tall brick chumney came into view, there was a carpark beside it so we went to investigate. I have to admit that I didn't know much at all about the Brunner Coal Mine so it was helpfull to see that the Department of Conservation had upgraded this site and it was obvious that a lot of work had gone into it. The chimney that we first saw was in fact not part of the Brunner Mine, the mine itself was on [View Full Entry]

By Mike and Sarah
January 23rd 2008

Days 137 Pancakes Anyone? Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Punakaiki

Our base in Greymouth was a great place to be able to explore the surrounding area. On Monday morning we were up early to head 42 kms north to Punakaiki - Pancake Rocks. On the mountain roads again, Mike was having fun in the sipper! We arrived at the pancake rocks in time for high tide. (We had checked the previous day when high tide was as this is seemingly when they are best viewed). A short walk through some native New Zealand Palm trees brought us to the rock formations. Jutting out of the ocean after thousands of years of [View Full Entry]

By Goodacres in Australia
January 10th 2008

Hot day down the West Coast... Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Arch

So, we were going to wake up at 6:45 to get our day going early, since the sun exists nice and early in these parts. But...Murray was in charge of the alarm clock, so it was 7:30 when the body decided to start moving around. Still in good spirit, we headed off up island to see an arch, some caves, and some rain forest. Was a great view of the ocean to start our day, and then we travelled on a 16km stretch of single land gravel, only one mini bus on it's side, good thing it was a dry day. [View Full Entry]

By mitsch
October 14th 2007

Tranz Alpine Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

From the train

Lotsa noise again - didn't sleep alot but the ear plugs helped. Think the most we got in any one stint was 3 hours. It didn't help that we had to be at the train station by 7.45, taxi booked for 7.30 which means up to shower and eat at *groan* 6.30am. Susan was not impressed as I'm sure most of you can imagine. Mind you I wasn't feeling any different after my night of non-sleep! The taxi got us to the station with plenty of time to spare. Our seats were allocated on check-in which saved us having to fight [View Full Entry]

By Bex_84
October 10th 2007

Nelson to Greymouth Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

I got up even earlier this morning with one of the other girls from my dorm who was also travelling on the magic bus (the backpackers bus tour company I'd booked to see the South Island with). We had our breakfast then went to wait for the bis to find that it was pouring it down. We stood sheltered for as long as we could then we ran out to the bus when it appeared. The bus wans't too full which meant that everyone got two seats to themselves. The itinerary for the day was Nelson to Greymouth with a few [View Full Entry]

By Bluemiri
October 7th 2007

Kurztrip nach Hanmer Springs und Greymouth Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Unterwegs nach Hanmer Springs

Nachdem die erste Woche der Ferien in Queenstown ja entgegen Versprechungen recht arbeitsintensiv war, gab mir Susie in der zweiten Ferienwoche 3 komplett freie Tage und obendrein das Auto mit der Anregung doch mal Hanmer Springs (nördlich von Christchurch) und die Westküste zu besichtigen. Mutig packte ich also meine Habseligkeiten zusammen und verlies am Mittwoch Mandeville mit Ziel Hanmer. Auf meiner zweistündigen Fahrt dorthin kam ich durch wirklich sehr schöne Landschaften (siehe Fotos auf http://picasaweb.google.com/bluemiri). Hanmer selbst erwies sich dann als ziemlich winzig (800 Einwo [View Full Entry]

By CanadianKiwis
August 18th 2007

On the way to the glaciers Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Marie at Home

Last night Marie got the grand tour of the Youth Centa, where a welcoming (and likely toxic) fire was burning away in the rusting oil barrel out front. Later we caught the Woodstock revival show at Wilson's Hotel. It was pretty much a one woman show, although every once and a while a bloke with appropriately long hair and a sixties head scarf accompanied her on the tambourine. This morning we got a late start for our tour down the West Coast to Fiordland. We stopped off at Monteith’s brewery in Greymouth for the required brewery tour and beer sampling. Marie [View Full Entry]

By Olidownunder
June 11th 2007

Greymouth Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

New Zealand has it all!

Hello! There's even less people living on the West Coast than anywhere else in NZ... Nothing much up in Greymouth, so I joined the local brewery tour. Sweet. Oli [View Full Entry]

By Knightsontour
March 19th 2007

Greymouth / Buller Gorge / Punakaiki Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Buller Gorge

Buller Gorge The drive to Greymouth from Abel Tasman (Blog: ) took us via Buller Gorge. Buller Gorge apparently has New Zealand's longest swingbridge at 110m long. I had one look at it and decided there was no way I was going to cross it. Firstly, you could see straight through the bottom of it, down to the raging waters, secondly, it was really bouncing about as people walked along it (yes I know that's what swingbridges do, but this one was worse than most) and thirdly, you had to cross it both ways (as it was the only bridge across [View Full Entry]

By CanadianKiwis
March 18th 2007

Greymouth ATV Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth

Getting Dirty

We had our first real rain experience in Reefton. It rained more or less all week. The town river swelled considerably, completely covering the gravel bed that we saw when we first arrived. On Thursday, I took off for a serious ride in the mountains. It had been raining hard all day but my wet weather gear performed admirably. My first stop was Black's Point Museum, a couple of kms outside of town. The place was deserted and I was treated to a private tour. The Museum is devoted to Reefton area history which has been dominated by mining. The museum [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Greymouth