Over the past few days we worked our way towards the northern end of the South Island and are now heading southwest.
On the morning of the 5th (Tuesday) Seth and I took a nice long run through South Bay (Kaikoura), and since it wasn’t raining we had a better chance to look around and explore the suburbs and shore.
We checked out of the holiday park and took off for Nelson, a larger town located on the northern coastline. Along the way we stopped at a Warehouse in Blenheim to buy raincoats and a billy (pot) for when we go trekking. I hate buying more crap to carry and have to worry about, so hopefully they will be very useful, and hopefully the raincoats won’t leak (they were pretty cheap :o( ).
In the afternoon we arrived at Tasman Bay Backpackers, which was a typical hostel—busy, colourful, yet well organised. They even cooked hot brownie pudding every night at 8pm (which we unfortunately missed out on this first night because we arrived at 8:06pm from taking a walk downtown). That night, after we were deprived of pudding, I finally got a little tiny bit of work done on my thesis, and Seth got to practice his guitar. I just wish we had more time like that to relax and catch up on things; it really helps to get focused and organised.
Wednesday the 6th we took a nice long run up a giant hill/mountain thing to the Centre of New Zealand. It is supposed to be the geographical centre of the country, but it seemed a little too conveniently located at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the ocean. We ran along the mountain ranges (which are used for sheep grazing) for a while before heading back. After brunch we walked into town to grab a coffee and do some work but it was apparently a public holiday, Waitangi Day, so most shops had a 20% surcharge (Conor, from Dash, warned me about this!). We settled for ice cream instead and headed back for the hostel.
In the afternoon we took our carefully planned splurge activity (we decided before we left Australia that we would do one or two bigger outings—limited to one or two since we are on a budget) which was horseback riding. I haven’t been riding since a family trip to Costa Rica, which was about 5 years ago, so I was really aching to go. Seth hadn’t been much (even though he grew up around horses out in the country), but he seemed to have a good time. It was just the two of us with the guide (who looked remarkably similar to my childhood best-friend, Dahlia, who loves horses) and she took us through some great trails up to a look-out and through very green forests. It was well worth it! To top off the day, we made it back to the backpackers just in time for brownie pudding!
Yesterday, Thursday the 7th, we started off by running along the river that runs out of Nelson, following it along the suburbs then later a few farms, between the ranges. We then had brunch, stocked up on a few more groceries, even visiting the one Asian shop in town (in honour of Chinese New Year, I suppose), before heading south (inland) to Nelson Lakes National Park. We did a quick 1.5 hour walk through some forests at Lake Rotoiti, and noticed it happened to be sunny yet rather hot, for the first time in a while. We continued driving west, towards the coast, and made a quick stop to view the Lyell Cemetery (Lyell is an old mining ghost town from the late 1800s), then just missed Westport on the coast, and oriented ourselves south. The drive (which was supposed to be pretty good) wasn’t much at first but once the scrubby beach plants parted and the sun began setting over the cliffs and coastline it became very striking. We took a rest break at Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks—limestone rocks that formed layers and were carved by waves. We even noticed some of New Zealand’s awkward, flightless birds, which were rather friendly and no doubt very accustomed to the human hand.
We arrived in Greymouth last night around 9:30pm, and checked in to a very cute and quiet (finally!) hostel called Noah’s Ark. It was previously a convent, and now converted to a backpackers--with animal themed rooms! We stayed in the sheep room, and wonderfully enough they were the black variety; I just love back sheep :o)
**I don’t have any photos from the past few days ready yet, but since this was the first computer I found with a USB port I decided to take it- I will try to have pictures up soon!
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