Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 27

Next we headed out to the West Coast through Reefton and out to Greymouth. In Greymouth we went to the Monteiths Brewery and took the tour. Unlike Coors, it was not free but it was only NZ$10. They showed us the small brewery and told us its history. It was started in Reefton durring the gold rush and then moved out to the West Coast to combine with a bunch of other small breweries to for the West Coast brewery. Monteiths was the one that stayed popular and the only one they ended making in the end so they changed the name. It is now only run by 10 people which includes the couple tour guides. They showed us the bottle depalitizer and told us how the mechanic built it out of a car frame and ... read more

White Water Rafting and Jet Boating Finally got the chance to white water rafting after the weather conspiring against us in River Valley, unfortunately this river was only a grade 3-4 compared to river valleys 5. Though as it was the first time i had ever done it, this made little difference as had no real point of reference. Mind you when you were on the rapids you could tell they were quite a bit tamer, than you would have expected. Was all good fun though, and we were offered the chance to go down one of the rapids in the water (obv with a life jacket on), which i gleefully accepted. It is of course winter though and the water was absolutely freezing - so much so that on hitting the water ones chest ... read more

After leaving Arthur's Pass, we headed North on the West Coast up to Punakiaki and Paparoa National Park. We set up my brand new tent which worked great and then walked out to the beach to watch the sun set over the sea. On Sunday we walked the short path out to look at the pancake rocks in Paparoa. After that walk we had a muffin at a cafe where the funny looking bird was walking through all the tables outside looking for food. After finishing the muffin we headed up to the northern edge of Paparoa National Park and went on the Fox River Cave Trail.... read more

We stayed at the top ten campsite for just one night in Westport. In the morning we headed down along the coast towards Greymouth, we followed Jon and Lisa. On the way there was lots to see. We took in the sights while walking for a few km’s from the car park towards Cape Foulwind. When we arrived we were greeted by lots of seals playing and basking in the sunshine. Lovely animals but boy do they stink! There was also a sign post with multiple destinations and the distances from that point. It was quite nice to see just how far away from other cities we were! The walk back to the vans was just as nice, the views were amazing and we had been lucky enough to get good weather, got quite hot walking. ... read more

Steffin and Becs wanted to have one last hurrah at the beloved Greymouth beachfront house before they packed up the final boxes and moved out. We had barely met them, but in typical Kiwi warm hospitality we were invited along to join them at a hāngi. A hāngi is a method of cooking in an outdoor earthen pit oven which involves digging a pit, heating stones over a bonfire, placing wire baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before lifting the hāngi. We had a great time at a hangi held by New Zealand’s honorary consul to New England in Canterbury, New Hampshire prior to departing for New Zealand. Now we were excited and prepared to attend our first hangi on the land where it originated. The ... read more