Whitebait

You know that you are on holiday when you don’t know what day it is! And that’s how it’s been and today was a good one.

We left the Loft at 10:00 with the aim of heading to Cobden, just north of Greymouth for whitebait – driving through Cobden I could remember the old cottage houses from visits to my Uncle Bert and Aunty Thelma who lived there – I was fairly young them!! Our navigator directed me to a point at the mouth of the Grey river where the mobile van would be that served the best whitebait patties, but alas there was no sign of it – either he wasn’t open today or I was misdirected.
But we got out of the car – the sea was wild, and the swell was running into the port on the river and we got to chat to a couple from Victoria.
We decided to flag it and hopefully there would be some in Karamea.

Not much further down the road we turned to go to Blackball – an old mining town with some history. Driving into the town was magic with all the old cottages with quirky fixtures and gardens.
We bought some salami, which apparently they are famous for and went to an historical memorial beside the Blackball Hilton. Blackball is famous for the political events that took place during and after a miner’s strike. Some fundamental labour laws were first applied here and the beginning of socialism.

Next stop was Punakaiki and there was a good crowd there. This place has changed a lot since the last time we were here. The reserve is easy to get through, and food facilities are good too. We stayed for lunch.
It was a clear sunny day, so the pancake rocks were at there best and the blow holes had some action. I think we win the prize for the best blow holes photo!!
Onwards to Westport where got petrol and bought a few supplies at New World. Had a little tiki tour around and decided Westport was a boring town so on to Karamea.

The coast was pretty and often majestic with the sun around to the west and we found ourselves on a road climbing up and up – I wasn’t expecting that and soon we came to traffic lights and roadworks. We must have waited 20 minutes with a few cars gathering behinds us. When we finally got going, we saw that the works was a reseal job and it went on for kilometres.
Lucky those residents. We have often remarked in the last week how the roads are wonderful on the west coast. Pot holes are rare – none for miles – it shows you how important it is to have firm base ground – on the coast the subbase would be rock.

We arrived at Karamea – we have a small cabin behind the hotel - the hotel opened in 1876. The cabin id cosy and the bench is just big enough for our coffee machine.
Had dinner tonight in outside in the evening sun with a few seagulls and we both had whitebait – yum yum and a glass of beer.
Tomorrow we plan some walks and might check out a few caves.Read more