Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2011
Edit Blog Post
The drive down to the pancake rocks was a very short one but we decided to head out early to avoid the ‘rush’ of tourists that would be heading there as well. It is a well constructed walk on a tarmac path (at last somewhere without loose stone and rock) that went around the edge of the cliff. It has lots of stops but the first ones aren’t that impressive and we were starting to feel a little disappointed. As the walk is surrounded by large trees you can’t see the next part of the walk or the rocks so it was quite nice to turn a corner and find the large surge pool. It definitely isn’t somewhere you would like to fall into. The sound was great as you could hear the water crashing into the caves and rocks around. Unfortunately the tide was on its way out so the blowholes weren’t blowing! It was quite grey and overcast and as we were now in desperate need of petrol we headed on straight to Greymouth to find the petrol station.
We made it to Grey mouth (just) and filled up with petrol again so we parked up for a
walk round the town. Greymouth is the West Coasts largest town but really isn’t very big (I think Margate or Swansea are bigger!!). The weather was looking quite miserable so we decided to stock up on some food and head out to a holiday park just outside Grey mouth - about 7kms back from where we had come at a place called Rapahoe. The park was lovely with each site surrounded by hedges so it offered some privacy from your neighbours. We pulled in and went to the office to check in only to find no one around. So we hung round for 10 minutes or so in the hope they may come back but no one did. After reading one of the signs that told new campers to find a spot if no one was around that’s exactly what we did!! There was a tent next to us but not really many other people around. When I went over to the kitchen I noticed the car next to us had returned - when I looked again it was the nice Scotsman who had jump started our van!! So we soon got chatting to him and actually introduced ourselves this
time!! He then offered us a drink from his ‘brewery in the boot!!’ He has lived in NZ for about 10 years and its legal to brew your own spirits - so that what he had done and had all many of them in his boot, from Bourbon to Whisky, Rum to Vodka and some Jeigermeister thrown in too!!
Mark tried a little bit of fishing on the beach the other side of the hedges but still didn’t catch any fish, just a cold after being waist deep in cold water!! So after a shower him and Rob (the nice Scotsman) decided they would light a fire. Being a little dubious I stayed in the van reading to let the boys play with wood and get a fire going. However, as it dark and just a little bit cold I decided to go and join them as they had a nice roaring fire going. A ‘few’ glasses of wine later we had gathered quite a group around the fire including a Swedish couple, and two English Uni students! It was well gone midnight by the time I stumbled back to the van and I know the others were up
for a little while after that!!
The following day was a bit overcast and so were our heads. So we went into Greymouth to take advantage of the free internet at the library and to get some shopping. That evening Rob and Mark were all set for re kindling the fire - as Rob had put a log on the embers and it re lit immediately!! - but the weather had different ideas. The rain was horrible that night and lasted all evening so everyone was resigned to their vans and tents for the nights to listen to the rain. We were due to check out the following morning to go over Arthurs pass but as the rain hadn’t stopped so we decided to stay another day and relax. About an hour after making the decision to stay and paying for the extra night the skies cleared and it was beautiful sunshine, so we walked to Coal creek falls. It was a good hours walk through forest and a bit hilly but I think it was worth it in the end! Dad and Sandra joined us that evening as they managed to catch up with us. As the weather
was good we sat out in the courtyard playing dominoes for a bit with Rob whilst Mark waited impatiently for it to get dark enough to light the fire. When the time came they had trouble lighting it and Sandra and I found the whole thing immensely funny watching a Welshman, Scotsman and Englishman trying to light a fire!! Mark got too impatient in the end and started soaking the logs in meths before putting them on the fire!! We gathered another good crowd round the fire that night, but thinking I may turn into a pumpkin at midnight I retreated to bed before I got the chance to find out. Once Mark had fallen asleep in front of the fire he decided it was time to join me!!
So a great and Random 3 days spent with good company, but now its time to bid farewell to Dad and Sandra again and its off over Arthur’s pass and back towards Christchurch so I can go visit some local schools.
First stop on the journey from coast to coast is Lake Brunner. Its only about 40K from Rapahoe and is not really a detour is going over the
pass so seems a good place to head. It doesn’t take us long to find the brown tourist signs that tell us we are going the right way - that’s the great thing out here - everything is signposted!! We pull up into the little township and can’t really see the lake so we carry on past the shops and into what seems like a residential area until we finally saw a car park and the beautiful lake. It was a gorgeous day as well so we took a short walk at the edge of the lake until we could get no further around. We sat on the beach and watched a kid play on a rope swing - we were both secretly hoping he would bugger off so we could have a go!!! We decided this would be a good place to stop for lunch so we made cheese sandwiches and tea at the back of the van over looking the lake and mountains.
After tearing Mark away from the view we headed towards Arthur’s pass. Mark was getting ever more apprehensive with every sign that said ‘steep gorge’ or ‘not suitable for towing vehicles’. We knew we
were heading to just under 1000 feet but hadn’t realised how quickly!! Mitsy really struggled up the hills and was blowing a lot of black smoke out but we were too far up to worry about turning back now!! When we came to a look out we pulled in just to give Mitsy a break and look at where we had just come from. I was pretty glad we hadn’t come after (or during) really heavy rainfall as the water would have been ferocious down the gorge. While stopped we saw our first Kea’s. The green alpine parrots that are really inquisitive and have apparently been known to eat the rubber from the car seals.
So after short break and cool down we headed back up over the pass. Once in Arthur’s Pass township we stopped to do a walk to the Devils Punchbowl waterfall. Only an hours walk to the base of 130 foot waterfall - sounded great. Only what they didn’t tell you was that it was 292 steps each way as well as a lot of steep hills! It was a scorching day and for once Mark was a little hung over not me and was
finding it a little difficult. At least I’d remembered to take the bottle of water with us!! The waterfall was lovely and there was a nice spray of mist as it hit the bottom so you did get to cool down once you got there, shame there wasn’t one after we got back to the van! After this it was a lovely drive through lots of mountain view and valleys, then into Christchurch - where we actually got stuck in a traffic jam!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0347s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb