Greymouth

On the 21st of February, after 3 days rest we set off to Greymouth for another 3 nights of low activity to help wait out my infection recovery time. The coastal drive from Westport to Greymouth is stunning. It’s a lot like the Great Ocean Road just south west of Melbourne.

There is also the blowhole at the Pancake rocks that sprays out seawater at high tide and when the ocean is rough. But the weather was great and the sea was flat so we didn’t see any that day even when we waited for high tide. Very interesting rock formations though.

After arriving at Greymouth, we at first had a lot of trouble finding accommodation for 3 nights. We checked all the major hostels and they all either a) had rooms spare and were crap or b) were a good place and booked out.

We eventually settled for a room at a holiday park which was a good price too. The next day we drove out to a place called Shantytown which was rather crap. The promotional leaflet makes out the place to be an old style town with period style activities and events happening. But what you really see is basically a museum with not much interactivity at all. Maybe we just visited it on a slow day?

The day after we drove out to Lake Brunner to check it out. We got some nice shots, but being so soon after Nelson Lakes we were both thinking “another lake? umm yeah”…

On the day before we left (and before a big storm) I went down to the nearby beach and took a few shots. I was intrigued by how desolate the beach felt at that time.

We are both itching to see some glaciers and that is next on the list. After Greymouth we will be seeing the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. Can’t wait for them!