Blogs from Greymouth, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

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 the opposite bank of the Grey River. Thomas Brunner an early explorer of the West Coast was the first Pakeha to discover the coal seam when he was travelling up the Grey River Gorge by ... read more

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 with the oldies for the better seats. I have no doubt we would've lost the race! :-) (Just kidding, they were pleasant enough people really!) We were looking forward to the trip on the Tranz ... read more

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 reluctantly joining in;) Monteith's got its start in Reefton in the 19th century, relocating to Greymouth in the early 20th century. It remains the only major brewer on the West Coast. While various Monteith concoctions ... read more

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 the gorge) and it was so narrow that if someone was coming the other way, you had to cling to one side. So, like a lemming to cliff edge, Jason just had to face his ... read more

בס"ד את השבוע החדש התחלנו, שמוליק ואני, שוב יחדיו בקצב המוכר והטוב. נסענו בדרך ה- Haast ששמענו שהיא אחת הדרכים היפות... אולי היה זה מזג האוויר.. ואולי סתם בגלל שאני כבר שישה שבועות בניו זילנד שיש בה ה-מון יופי.. מצאתי את עצמי מייחסת לדרך הזו את התואר "נחמדה" ולא מעבר. הגענו אל אזור הקרחונים הידוע, אל.. Fox Glaciar ששם ניצבים הרים של קרח באזור שמוקף בוש ירוק בלי די, כמעין תופעת טבע לא מובנת... ויתרתי על ההליכה המודרכת על הקרח והסתפקתי בסיור עצמאי אל נקודות תצפית. בניו זילנד אני יכולה לומר שהייתי ב- West coast מ... read more