Happy in Hokitika......

A massive shout out to our hard-working travel company who have swiftly got us out of the hell hole in Fox Glacier into a beach front view hotel 🏨 in Hokitika. We left Fox Glacier in a cloud but relieved; Fox Glacier is probably alright if you like hiking 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️, but not really for sun worshipping tourists like us. Not such a pretty drive as other parts of the South island as we travelled through dense bush with scattered milling and farming settlements. There were quite a few photo opportunities with lake reflections, and as we approached Hokitika, the landscape began to open out. Hokitika is a small seaside town; population 3,250, on the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Greymouth, and close to the mouth of the Hokitika River. It was established as the result of gold mining in 1864. It was a centre of the West Coast gold rush and grew very quickly. Hokitika' pebbly beach leads you into the Tasman Sea, which is part of the Pacific Ocean. The beach is strewn with driftwood, many of which have been collected and sculptured together. We had a lovely walk along the beach towards what looks to be a ship, but it's only false ant the only thing real is the anchor ⚓️ which belonged to a ship called the Tambo which ran aground here in 1866. There are numerous shops here, including a lovely glass blowing shop that allows you to watch the glass blower at work during the week. We bought a couple of souvenirs of our trip, a blue penguin and a Kiwi. Heading back to the hotel, we sat in the balcony with a glass of wine just listening to the waves crashing a shore. Rested and hungry, we changed and went for dinner, Salmon for Jayne and I went for a lovely local white fish called Hoki. Afterwards, there was almost a lovely sunset before we went back to the hotel and fell asleep 😴 to the sound of waves of the Pacific OceanRead more