Blogs from Karamea, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Thursday, November 26th The Bus-Rat was back for a visit last night, but ran off when we got up to see if we could spot him. After breakfast we put on some music and started working on the van with a vengeance. We needed it done by Saturday morning because we still have to clear the rest of the building site and cut up the remaining logs for fire wood. It was a blisteringly hot day, but we made great progress on the van. At tea time Talita baked delicious sweet-corn bread that we enjoyed for lunch. We called it a day around 8pm. We were knackered and our lower backs were killing us from all the bending over. We had a shower, cooked a yummy dinner, had a glass or two of wine and headed ... read more

Last weekend, in order to celebrate our anniversary (we met 14 years ago!) we took the spectacular 5 hour Tranz Scenic Alpine train trip from Christchurch, over Arthur's Pass to Greymouth on the 'wild' West Coast. From Greymouth, we picked up a rental car and drove 3 hours up the coast, literally to the end of the road at Karamea. We managed an estuary walk before it became completely dark, stayed overnight in a typical Kiwi hotel ('The Karamea Hotel') and then did the whole thing in reverse on the Sunday...well, we had to get back to work for monday morning! We had time to see some of Greymouth (home of the awesome Monteith's brewery), Westport (home of a great cafe for sunday brunch), Lake Hanlon (home of, well, a nice lake...called Hanlon) as well as ... read more

The Heaphy great walk (and one of the most popular hikes in New-Zealand) is a relatively easy but long one, about 80 km between Golden bay to the west coast. On the official information sheet they say it's a 4 to 6 days walk, easily done in 5 a day, with most hikers doing it in 4. We've done it in 3 days. It wasn't really planned, but as the first day was surprisingly easy and quite boring, we just started pushing on the second day, as some of our group have a tight schedule. On the third day, the track really changed for the better. The rain stopped completely and the endless boring hill changed to a lovely river which slowly flowed to the sea. As you can see, this is truly a lovely site. ... read more

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Efter att vandringen ar avklarad aker vi med buss till narmsta lilla hala, dvs, Karamea. Har finns inte mycket mer an en bar, nagra hotell och vandrarhem och bondgardar. Vi tar in pa ett Hippie-inspirerat vandrarhem/galleri/radiostation och vilar upp oss under eftermiddagen. Pa kvallen testar Per den lokala specialiten "whitebait" som ar fiskyngel hopklumpat till en burgar-liknande skapelse som sedan friterats. Smakar sadar. ... read more