Running On Fumes Down The West Coast (Plus Other Exciting Things I Have No Room For In The Title) (Sep. 28 – Oct. 2)

Leaving Golden Bay, we proceeded toward the West Coast for a quick jaunt down the coast before heading back east to Chch through Arthur’s Pass. Friday brought our longest driving day of 5 hours or so, as the driving distance to the West Coast is substantial and because it takes awhile to traverse the many switchbacks up and then down Takaka Hil in GB. To break up the drive we stopped in Buller Gorge, home of the “longest swingbridge in New Zealand”, which is a bit touristy, but what the heck. Don especially enjoyed the gorge because as a civil engineer he appreciates a good bridge and also because he opted to spend the extra bob and take the Superman zip-line back across the river.

The longest swing bridge in New Zealand

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a civil engineer!

Once on the West Coast we took L&D to perhaps our favorite hostel, The Old Slaughterhouse, in Hector. TOS, of course, requires a 10 minute bushwalk up a hill to reach the hostel, but with such good accommodations even L&D didn’t mind a little hike. With our second day of good weather in a row we were able to see the sun set over the Tasman Sea, quite possibly the strongest of TOS’s many selling points. L&D had been asking about a sunset for days, so it was good, as professional tour guides, to be able to deliver. It’s tough to beat eating freshly collected and cooked mussels while watching the sun set over the sea from a deck perched about 100m above the beach. We realize we have it tough here, but we persist.

Mom and Don enjoy the sunset from the porch at the Old Slaughterhouse

On the next day we drove south to Punakaiki, for what became our third trip to the Pancake Rocks. Once again we didn’t see any blowhole action there (Becky claims she saw a blowhole when we were there with Marie and Alex, but we’re all skeptical, frankly). Linda was a diehard, camping out for about an hour at the notorious spot where Becky saw the Loch Ness Monster…er fantastic blowhole action last time, but alas, no joy for her on this particular day.

Beyond being the scenic drive it always is, our brief tour down the West Coast was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we failed to fill up with gas before we left Westport. This became an issue because we had less than a quarter tank as we left Westport, and there’s no petrol for about 100km between there and Greymouth – I must have been wearing my Bad Idea Jeans. However, miracle of miracles, we somehow coaxed more than 580km out of one tank of gas, which is a certainly a record for Ron Burgundy in 2007. Our previous high mileage total had been in the low 500’s, so you can imagine it was quite a white-knuckled drive for us that day.

Always read the road signs - they're not fooling!

The worst part of the drive was that it had to last so long, since I was driving a bit slowly and coasting downhill whenever possible to conserve petrol. We can say in all honesty that we’ve never been so excited to see Greymouth. I’ve never run out of gas before, and wasn’t keen to do it along an isolated road on the NZ’s west coast, so the success of this trip represented a huge victory for the forces of good. I don’t want to read too much into this particular episode, but I think you can safely say that the universe thinks we’re living right.

Karmic deliverance notwithstanding, when we hit Greymouth we made a left turn directly east, heading back towards Chch, and promptly rejoined the poor weather that has been tormenting the South Island the past few weeks. That evening, staying in Arthur’s Pass, we were pounded all night by a ridiculously windy rainstorm. The next day we took L&D into Chch, which was surprisingly warm and sunny, for a little sight-seeing and souvenir shopping. You can’t go wrong with a hike at the Sign of the Kiwi or Chch’s botanic gardens, but Cathedral Square, as always, leaves a bit to be desired. Which is a shame really, since it’s the focal point of the city and should be a happening location.

Punting down the Avon through a sea of daffodils

That evening we stopped in with our good friends Kieran and Belinda in Amberley, where they offered to put us all up for the night. Belinda made a roast, and there was plenty of good beer and wine to go around. However, the highlight of the evening was probably Don donning cricket gear and facing a few pitches from Oscar in the middle of the dining room. He’d been asking Kieran heaps of cricket questions, so they thought an object lesson was probably the most appropriate way to show him. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty hilarious. After a good day of driving and sight-seeing and an evening of good food and wine, not to mention cricket, we were set to crash.

Cricket, anyone?

The next morning, with just two more days left in L&D’s New Zealand experience, we took them out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, another of our favorite spots on the South Island. Since Don is a really avid golfer, he was keen to golf in NZ, where owing to the small population it has some ridiculous number of golf courses per capita. We promised to get him on a course at some point, and after driving by countless courses over the past two weeks, finally got him to the Akaroa Golf Club on his penultimate day in NZ. Akaroa, as you might expect, has a nice, hilly course, though a number of the fairways would be best described as claustrophobic. They certainly don’t have a surplus of real estate there. Don’s quite good and easily beat my over-100 round, though for not getting out on the course in the past year I felt like I swung the sticks pretty well.

Don feels more at ease with a golf club than a cricket bat

For L&D’s last blast on Tuesday we ran them back into Chch, where they saw kiwis at the Cathedral Square aquarium, bought more souvenirs (including some cool maps), and went to the Chch Casino. Our advice would be to skip the Casino, unless you’re a slot machine or roulette nut. The Casino doesn’t seem to offer much else, much to Linda’s disappointment, as she was hoping for some good video poker action. I would’ve liked to play some craps for my dad, but no dice (literally or figuratively) there either. After seeing their requisite Maori cultural performance, it was time to put them on a plane home. Overall, a very good two weeks with Linda and Don, thanks for visiting, you two! Now…who’s next?

Arthur’s Pass And The West Coast, Part I (Feb. 26 – Mar. 1)

After the urban fun of Christchurch, we were due next to cruise through New Zealand’s arguably least-developed and most rugged, isolated, and beautiful areas: the west coast. I know, I know, the superlatives about the ‘most beautiful’ this or ‘most scenic’ may get a bit worn for this travelogue, but I’m just trying to call ‘em as I see ‘em. In a word, it is indeed ‘massive’, as another traveler in Fiji described the region.

A waterfall at Arthur's Pass

Just before we took off to the west coast, we stopped in Methven, where we’re considering spending the winter working at Mt. Hutt. Diagnosis: it’s a small town with nothing going on in summer, but could be a nice place to spend the winter. It is supposed to have the longest ski season in the country, so that’s a good factor in its favor. We’ll have to see what Wanaka has to offer before we definitely decide, though.

An inquisitive weka says hello

Looking at the South Island, it’s quite long as measured north-south, but is relatively narrow, so we were able to drive from Christchurch on the east coast to Hokitika on the west in less than 4 hours via Arthur’s Pass. The pass provides one of the relatively few east-west routes through the Southern Alps, and provides some absolutely majestic mountain views for nearly the entire duration. I can only imagine what it’s like in the winter with some more snow coverage on the tops; we might have to come back later in the season, especially if we’re in Methven.

View of Arthur's Pass from the car

The west coast region stretches from Karamea in the north to Haast in the south, hemmed in by the Southern Alps on the east and the Tasman Sea on the west. Though its been the site of various booms and rushes (gold, coal, etc.) in the past, it’s just rugged enough, far away, and tough to get to that it has an empty, uninhabited feel. The main towns of Greymouth, Westport, and Hokitika remind me of semi-abandoned frontier towns on the sea, half-full and weather-beaten. If NZ is where you go to get away from the rest of the world, the west coast is where you go to get away from the rest of NZ; only the rugged need apply. The people we’ve met here, like just about everyone else we’ve met in the country, have been really friendly and engaging, in addition to being able to weather the weather and relative isolation here.

Cape Foulwind on the west coast

Cape Foulwind Lighthouse

The first person we met on the west coast was our Couchsurfing host in Hokitika, Brendon. He’s a ‘Hoki’ native about our age, graduated from Canterbury in Chch, and works in a dairy lab in town. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy and lives, interestingly in a house on the grounds of a former mental health institution. That was a bit different, but he was quite used to it. His place reminded me of the house I lived at in college, especially since they were still cleaning up the remains of a party that weekend that apparently was such a good time that someone burned one of their mattresses. Brendon wasn’t there for that, but it sounds like he missed a good time. We spent a couple days in Hoki, one day waiting for a beer shipment that never arrived (darn couriers!), and checked out the local scene, a nice hike and glow worms, our usual type of stops. Brendon was a really good host, and invited us back if we were through the area, which we might, as Hoki’s Wild Foods Festival is coming up soon…

On the trail in Hokitika

After Hoki, we tore off for Beaconstone, an eco-friendly backpackers out in the bush south of Westport. We’d have to give the place two big thumbs-up, as it was immaculate, had a great location, and the owners were really engaging and cool. Grae was a native Kiwi, and his wife is originally from California, and they just really seemed to enjoy the rugged nature of the west coast. Even a few miles from the ocean at Beaconstone, we could hear the surf pounding the coast relentlessly, as nature is never far away from you here.

The Old Slaughterhouse - what a view!

After a night in Beaconstone, we had booked a night at another great hostel, The Old Slaughterhouse in Hector. It won fame as the ‘best’ hostel in the world a few years ago, and we’d have to say it’s quite high on our list of hostels, at least as far as what we’ve seen in NZ. To get to TOS requires a 10-minute hike straight up the hill, so that keeps away the riff-raff, I suppose, hehe. It also makes you figure out what you really need for the night there, that’s for certain. TOS certainly has a million-dollar view from its verandah, and we spent pretty much the entire day reading and hanging out in the hostel, taking in the view and playing with the dogs.

It was really a 10 minute walk - we packed lightly

Don't be jealous, Otto. Beatrice is staying at The Old Slaughterhouse with her owners.

As opposed to most hostels, David and Ina actually live in their hostel, and play host much of the day to travelers filtering in and out of their backpackers. Not a bad place to spend a beautiful summer day. We didn’t see any of the town’s namesake Hector’s dolphins, even with the binoculars provided, but that was about the only complaint. We’re just about at Karamea, which means we’ll be starting southward back down the west coast in a few days. So far, the northern half has been as good as advertised, hoping the southern half is as memorable.

Sunset from the verandah at the Old Slaughter House