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  • Day 459

    Hunting for stones

    May 21, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We were optimistic this morning when we woke up and rain finally eased. We had two major downpours in the night where we both woke up because it was so loud. Our van leaks in a few places so I was worried we would wake up in a mini swimming pool but luckily it wasn't too bad. It's a little tricky spending so much time on the wettest coast in the country with a leaky van. After breakfast we drove the 35 minute journey from our camping spot to Hokitika Gorge which is known for its clear blue waters and dramatic swing bridge. Apparently you can jump from the bridge into the water. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the blue water or test our bravery on the bridge because the road leading up to it was closed. Annoyingly as well apart from farms it's the only thing around in this area but there were no signs about the road closure until you were there so we drove all that way not knowing. On our way back we stopped at a memorial for victims of serial killer who attacked and killed many people including police men. This happened ages ago so it was hard to comprehend anyone in this small town in New Zealand with only a few farms are being capable of being NZ's first serial killer. We drove to the town at Hokitika and asked in the i-site when the road to the gorge would be open again. She knew nothing of it which was strange but I don't think we will risk driving all that way again to check later on if it's accessible or not. After a quick coffee and a pie we walked around town and down to the beach. The rain came in waves and was very unpredictable so we had to duck in and out of shops. On the beach they have a cool homemade sign of their town's name made from sticks of wood. We visited a place where you can carve your own greenstone, bone or shell into a piece of jewellery. Greenstone, or jade, is very popular in NZ and was treasured by the Maori people. This town is one of the places where you can kind it on the beach. We also found out that we could use our own rocks to make necklaces so before deciding what we'd do we headed to the beach to look for our own stones. We both fell in love with a couple but when we took them back found out we couldn't work with any because they were too fragile, hard or broken. Nick's now very determined to find our own stones somewhere on route and to come back to this place to carve them at a later date. After accepting Hokitika wasn't the place to get stones we headed north to our camp spot for the night in a cafe car park. We were treated to a pretty beautiful colour show at sunset. It's not the most glamorous of campsite but it's not bad when you consider it's free. Hopefully the highway traffic will soon quieten down!Read more