Wellington - Greymouth

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Friday 5th November

We boarded the ferry at a cost of $55 each for a single way trip. The weather is glorious and leaving Wellington is pretty nice as we can see all sides of the mountains that enclose the city and some of the houses on the hills look fantastic indeed. We sail out into the Cook Strait. Sitting up on top deck for the departure we waited until Wellington was well out of sight and then retreated indoors to the comfy sofa seats down below deck.

The journey took about 2 and a half hours and the last 20 minutes of the trip was really cool as we sailed between a large number of smaller islands and the weather was once again beautiful and sunny. We docked at Picton where the water was a fantastic aqua blua colour and lots of birds flew around us and we'd wondered if we'd ended up in Fiji again!

The magic bus awaits us once more and we hoped for a another bus driver like Glenn but instead we got some grumpy bugger. We are headed for Nelson where we will be staying the night at the local YHA as usual as most of the other hostels are party hostels with younger people which is fine but its not for us. We got friendly with Gene who is from South Beach L.A. He's a nice man indeed and is recuperating from a brain tumour operation which he's had operated on recently. He admittedly suffers from short term memory loss so we help him along with us for a few days giving him a hand with the confusing magic bus timetable as he's a likeable chap.

We pass through the famous wine regions of South island and stop at Bouldevines winery for a spot of wine tasting. New Zealand is home to what many wine critics consider the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc. With that we tasted some Sauvignon Blanc's, pinot noirs and some Pinot Grigios which were all quite nice except the 6 month old which was a bit sharp and dry on the palate. Since its Jills birthday tomorrow we bought a bottle of Sauvignon blanc for $10 (£5) and went for a walk around the vineyards and admired the fantastic southern Alps in the distance.


Nelson ‘the sunshine capital of NZ’ is an arty city, has a relaxed atmosphere and is the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park. Many people believe Nelson has the best climate in New Zealand, as it regularly tops the national statistics for sunshine hours, with an annual average total of over 2400 hours.

They are not far off the mark as we are sweltering in the heat by the time we get our bags off the bus and get checked into the hostel.
We took a wander around Nelson and its very nice and clean and has lots of shops all huddled together on four main roads around the city center. Jill bought some books and we headed home for dinner as Gene has kindly offered to cook us dinner tonight which turned out to be a delicious zucchini and cheese dish. I’m too tired to go watch the sunset from the viewpoint on the hill so Jill and Gene go without me while I slept and Jill’s going to take some photo’s for us. At the viewpoint there is a plaque that says welcome to the centre of New Zealand and there are panoramic views of the city and the Grampian Mountains that shadow the city.
While Jill and Gene were out I managed to slip off to the supermarket to buy a little cake, candles and birthday wrapping for Jills wee Birthday surprise in the morning. With the help of the Yha receptionist I make the cake, hide it and then go to bed as if nothing had happened as I was sound asleep by the time Jill got home.

Saturday 6th November

I got up early for a change and cut up some fresh pineapple for breakfast and waited until Jill was sitting eating quietly and not noticing me faffing about with her birthday cake. I lit up the candles and surprised her, plonking the cake on the table, to which everyone around us said happy birthday. I’m quite brisk on my feet today and it’s a good feeling to be walking without severe pain, sitting doing nothing is my worst enemy just now so hopefully we have a good few stops today for walks about.
We kind of wished we had more time in Nelson as not far from here is the Abel Tasman which is famous for its golden beaches, granite cliffs and coastal walks. Hindsight is a great thing as realistically 4 to 5 weeks would’ve suited us better and we could’ve explored so much more of New Zealand but hey ho we’ll crack on, still lots to do.
We get going and we have a new driver today who’s name is Disco, yes, Disco. He's all right actually, a bit quiet to begin with but he's a local lad from Lake Wanaka and it’s not long before he's got the tunes on and every so often giving us running commentry on the surrounding regions and scenery. We stop at the side of the road beside the Buller river at a part of the valley called Uranium Point, located in the Golden Downs. Its lovely and feels nice and fresh standing out in the hot sun with the breeze coming through the valley The Buller River meanders through this valley. Disco's told us to get some photo's in quickly as he knows another stop down the road that should still have seals on the rocks at this time of morning. Cool, i like this driver, no mucking around. We pass through an old gold mining town called Charlestown which signifies that we have arrived on the west coastal road.

We’ve arrived at Cape Foulwind, named so by captain cook after his ship was blown off course in this area. The cape is home to a Fur Seal breeding colony so we are dropped off and are given 30 minutes to enjoy the area. Disco advises us to haul up the walks to the next cove if we want to see the seals. We briskly walk the 10 minute path along the beachfront cliffs to the seal area where we find the seals and there are about 6 or 7 of them sun bathing and 1 youngster playing about on the rocks.

It’s nice here and we gently stroll back to the bus and Disco starts the bus up and hands out our reservation sheets for tonight and tomorrow night’s accommodation. That’s the good thing about Magic Bus, the bus driver books everything for you including the tours and buses as well as accommodation.
We're off and driving down through the coast road which is beautiful and we enter the Paparoa National Park which is a coastal forest with limestone cliffs, canyons, caves and home to the famous Pancake Rocks. There are lots of dead possums around the roads here and ‘a dead possum is a good possum’ says disco

We stop at another beach ten mile down the road and Disco gets out and led the way through the thick forest on a jungle track which opened out into a set of steps leading down to a beach called Meybille Bay which is stunning indeed. It’s like a little cove and it has very fine shingle instead of sand and if you grab a handful of it as it feels so soft and smooth that you are tempted to fill your pockets with it. There's a little water fall at the back of the beach which trickles over the edge of the overhanging cliff. The cliff face have been wind cut in a peculliar way that gives this wee bay character and you can see why Disco has taken us here as its very tranquil. On the way back through the forest Gene spotted a tree that had a sign showing us that it was in fact two types of tree growing together. You can see the two different colours of trunks intertwined on the photo to see what I mean. One tree is a Cedar where as the other is a pine of some sort.
We had spent another half hour here before boarding the bus again and setting off to our next stop, the Pancake Rocks, situated within the Paparoa National Park.
Just another twenty miles down the road we arrive at the Pancake rocks which are about a 15 minute walk from the road through some lovely forests covered with hundreds of varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees.
The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blow holes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone these form the main attraction of the area.
The suns still belting down and we arrive at the start of the rock formations which look strange at first but the sheer size and volume of these rocks is a sight to behold. We could almost see the blowhole in the centre of the rocks but they are building a new viewing platform so we couldn’t see into the hole as well as promised. No worries though as we enjoyed taking in the Pancake rock area as you can see from the photos it’s a sight not to be missed.

We hop back on board and enjoy the coastal views all the way to Greymouth (pop 10,000 ) where we would be staying the night.
Tonight we have a tour at the Monkeiths Brewery which includes beer tasting and dinner at a local hotel. We arrive at our hostel, get checked in and then get picked up and taken to the brewery around the corner.

There are about 25 of us sitting in the old fashioned bar inside the brewery waiting for the tour guide to appear and we get talking to a couple from Ireland who are sharing our 4 bed dorm with us at the hostel. An older guy appears and introduces himself and gives us a quick history lesson on the founders of Monkeith’s and the family behind the brand. We are then whisked around the brewery itself and shown the various processes in the production of beer, ale and cider.
Firstly we are shown the ingredients used such as the hops which are grown locally and some are imported from the u.k. Then we are shown the Mash ton which mixes the ingredients until its ready to be taken to the next area which is the Vats where its heated to various temperatures whilst adding in special yeasts. I didn’t know that the yeast is added then removed and used again a few times.
The yeast is grown in the brewery from a mother strain that is over a hundred years old. We walk around the large vats which holds the brews until they are ready to be filtered and supercool in the next room. The chiller room where this is down was blooming freezing and its not long before we are taking around to the bottling section and onto the labelling area. Its a good tour as its doesn’t take as long as you normally find with brewery or distillery tours and we finish off back in the bar for the favourite part of the tour which is the tasting of all 8 beers they produce here.
We are all given a small glass and invited up to sample individual brews and firstly we are treated to a taste of the sweet cider. We get about a 100mls each and asked to give our opinion on each and next up was the dark ale followed by a pilsner. The pilsner tasted like Budvar and ws my favourite. Black beer and summer ale were the next two up and the black beer uses chocolate hops from England whereas the summer ale has a strong taste of ginger through it and is one for the girls. We then get to taste the celtic red beer which has won medals in brewery competitions in the u.k and we also sample the golden lager which is a gold medal winner from last year. Both are quite nice but by now we are needing a whole pint to do it justice as there are too many tastes going on in your mouth to distinguish the differences in the lagers. Last but not least we taste a Raddlers beer which is basically a shandy, half lemonade and half lager and tastes a bit sweet.
That is our tour for the night and we are whisked off to the railway bar for our complimentary meal which was typical pub grub and its hit the spot as we are all starving!

Ahhhh great we have the All Blacks versus Australia in a super league rugby match. Jills having a rare day for her Birthday!!! We watched in amazement at the All Blacks doing the famous Haka pre match war dance which was being backed up by a few Maoris in the bar which added a bit of a more live feeling to it! They kick the match off and we ordered some Monkeiths pitchers for our two Irish friends, which were a special price for us, and began to watch the game.
The superleague rugby 4 nations involves these two teams aswell as England and Papau New Guinea and they are playing a round robin tournament over the next week or so.
It went pear shaped for the All blacks as they were thumped on the pitch and beaten badly by the Aussies which didn’t go down to well and we were treated to some lovely swearing and angry scenes from a minority at which point we decided to haul up the road as we were all plastered.

There were some magical clear skies above us on the way home and we could clearly see the Southern Cross which I’m informed is the four stars that is on the New Zealand National flag. You know you are in New Zealand when total strangers pass you on the street and say hello, hows it going and have a good night in the same breath.

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