Hokitika

There was no hurry this morning and we woke up to a cool morning – we had left two house windows open! Breakfast and coffee, showers etc and we were off to see the Hokitika Gorge. This is another beautiful area with the usual great features by DOC. Well kept trails, amazing swing bridges across the river in two places. The river water is milky blue, coming pretty much direct from the snow fields.\

It was a drive of about 30 minutes, and the carpark was full of tourists – young and old, mainly foreigners. We set out and at a small lookout we talked to a man with an American accent – Robyn asked him where he was from and he said “Ross” – Robyn then asked him if he knew the principal of the Ross school “Jodi” and he did – Jodi is the daughter of Owen and Karen Teague, my cousin.

The walk was 2km and we took it at a leisurely pace, stopping for photos. The temp was about 18 to 20 degrees – lovely. There was a spot were there was public access to the river, and we saw a man crouched down holding a cellphone, obviously videoing and adding a commentary and then we saw this guy swimming towards the camera. He stood up and was obviously frozen.
We noted the reserve had fewer birds than we had seen further south.

Coming back into Hokitika we returned to the sandwich café and ordered two different fillings. This place is so busy the wait is about 30 minutes, and nobody seem to worry about that.
A little time wandering around the shops, including a visit to a Jade shop then New World for tonight’s dinner. Then back home for afternoon coffee and rest.
Tomorrow we are off to Karamea – will probably have some whitebait in Greymouth and some side trips to Blackball and Dennisten. Tonight the weather looks a bit threatening, but no rain yet.
Saturday and Sunday in Hastings temps are forecast as 31 & 32.Read more