Blogs from Greymouth, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Once we'd settled into our 1970s themed motel room (vintage, perhaps?), we dropped into the i centre and discovered two vital pieces of information: 1 - daylight savings was beginning the next day and 2 - a visit to the blowholes at Pancake Rocks has to coincide with high tide. Despite our best intentions, we are usually so unprepared but we were going to be ready this time. The joy! The lovely lady at the i centre told us we might be able to spot dolphins at the end of the pier but the only sights we saw there were Mt Cook, some brave surfers and shipwreck memorials. We picked up some supplies at the New World supermarket and I was pleasantly surprised to find bag packers. I didn't realise they still existed in this day ... read more

Hi, there were a couple of things we did in Greymouth, besides walking around looking for something open !! We went to the memorial where the names of the miners were put on a wall, remember the 29 miners who all died in an explosion in a mine in 2010 ? Well it happened 46 km away from Greymouth, infact over the years they had all the names of the miners up on this memorial and some history about the accidents. There is a photo of Stu stood next to some tyres, we both couldn't get over how huge they were so I took a photo of them, OK, we were looking for something to do !! And at the time this entertained us !! They also love their 'street art' out here, you often see ... read more

Well our NavMan died today. We began to notice her decline while we were still on the North Island. She would suddenly lose her gps signal in the middle of a wide open space - no mountains or trees in the way to block the signal. She would also say "turn left" and while we were in the intersection getting ready to turn, she would suddenly say, "turn right". We thought she was just a bit dumb, but I think it was just Alzheimer's setting in. Yesterday she died for good. Perrrrrfect timing, NavMan. The South Island is much more remote than the North Island, and the roads much more twisty. Thankfully I bought a big map of the country before we left. And hopefully we will find an Avis where we can exchange the unit ... read more

We left Queenstown for Fox Glacier not by the main state road but by the more picturesque Crown Range road which took us along the mountain range. The road wound it's way upwards around many spine tingling hairpin bends and past ominous signs that read "chain stop here" !!!!! However the views and scenery made the journey well worth it, a must do if you come here. We carried on along the Cardrona Valley road until we came to a lovely town and lake at Wanaka. You could see the snowy tops of Mount Aspiring in the distance surrounded by a range of huge mountains. From here we went through the extremely narrow and winding Gates of Haast to get to the west coast. The vegetation changed from a mainly grassy or rocky terrain to one ... read more

Zaterdag 18 Januari 2014: Als ik alleen in een huis ben, lijk ik altijd te vervallen in oude gewoontejs. Zo bleef ik op tot 2u 's nachts. Dat was dus een korte nacht zeker omdat er om 5u een alarm afging in huis. Het ochtendritueel ging zeer langzaam en ik was niet gehaast. Ik maakte croque monsieurs, ik at er 5! Nog een beetje treuzelen en om 12u zijn we weg, eerst naar de winkel en dan verlaat ik eindelijk Westport. De eerste 7km zijn hetzelfde als in het heenkomen, alleen zijn ze nu droog :) Als ik afsla richting Greymouth staat er lifter. De baan is rustig en wijds. Het gaat door een soort heidelandschap en er zijn een aantal lichte klimmetjes. De zon is van de partij en er is een licht briesje. Ik ... read more