"I'm so glad we moved the van"

The rain just doesn't want to quit it seems. We are now understanding why the West Coast is covered in such beautiful rain forest. Filling up and unplugging this morning in the rain was not very fun at all. We also had a small hiccup with our day plan because as I was taking down the bed I knocked off my almost full cup of coffee onto the bedding below! Luckily it mainly went on one pillow that did have a mattress protector style cover on it so I quickly managed to get the covers off and into soak without ruining the pillow itself. It was even luckier because Franz Josef seems to have the only launderette for miles around so once we moved the van to the road we visited here and got the sheets in the wash straight away. This all took about 2 hours to sort with washing and drying but I'm glad we were able to get it sorted so quickly before it stained. While sitting in the launderette we must of had at least 20 downpours lasting anything from 2 to 10 minutes and then inbetween it was back to normal rain. The weather seems to pass through so quickly here and it was definitely looking like another miserable day. Once all the washing was sorted we could get on with our day and we came to the conclusion that none of the other glacier related trips interested us enough to do it, esoecially for the prices. Instead we left the glaciers behind and moved further up the coast towards Hokitika. We found a campsite for $5 each a night that's in the area of Woodstock just outside the town. Not only is it super cheap the community have also provided a guided walk to do that has history of the areas gold mining past and even takes you to see glow worms. We arrived pretty early and decided to risk the chance of rain and do the walk. We were able to go inside old mining tunnels and it was incredibly impressive to see each stroke mark from the pick axes left on the walls and ceilings of the tunnels. After a boggy climb to a lookout they had information on the gold mining business here and the town that sprung up as a result. Although it was daytime the glow worm dell was still very beautiful and after bending down through a lowered arch in the rock you were in a luscious green clearing in the surrounding forest. In the daylight you could just make out the glow worms silk threads they cast down to trap their pray. After thoroughly enjoying the walk that had so kindly been put together we headed back to the campervan just as the rain started again by this time with strong winds. The van shook and after looking up that the winds would reach pretty high speeds we decided to turn the camper around to face the direction the wind was coming from. With the winds getting stronger I think we both said the phrase "I'm so glad we moved the van" at least 5 times. After some dinner I convinced Nick to head back to the glow worms to see them at night. We had our torches in hand but it was still incredibly spooky walking back there especially with the wind blowing so loudly. The walk felt as if it took forever and then when we arrived it was all worth it. We came through that same rock opening and above us were hundreds of blue glow worm lights lighting up the darkness like stars. It was so beautiful and even though the forest was rather creepy we spent time admiring them and I tried many ways to get a photo. The worms were everywhere and even in places we didn't realise when we were here in daylight. As I photographed one area Nick noticed the biggest spider on the walk only a few centimetres from my hand. That was our cue to leave and after a brisk walk back we felt relieved to be in the safety of the campervan. It's amazing we got to be so close to the worms and the best part is it was free thanks to the locals showing us the way.Read more