West Coast

Keegan and I are booked to do the Routeburn track, one of NZ great walks, towards the end of the month. Until then the plan is to work our way down the West Coast from Westport (which was our first stop following the Old Ghost Road). We found ourselves another helpx place to stay which turned out to be an awesome spot! We stayed just outside of Hokitika with a sweet couple, Heather and Dave, their 3 kiddos Susie, Isla and Dougal and their visiting grandparents from Scotland, Joan and Hamish. We slept out in the playhouse which had just enough room for a bed but we spent a lot of time hanging out at the house with everyone and we both felt right at home. We didn’t get the best weather while visiting so unfortunately weren’t able to check off as many of our ‘to do’ activities but still really enjoyed our time on the Coast. We spent part of the day staining the house and part of the day relaxing, socializing and were able to get out for some fun. Heather and Dave love their water sports and we were lucky to have a canoe to borrow for a little lake/creek canoe adventure. We also got out to Arthur’s Pass National Park for a pretty amazing hike called Avalanche peak. It was a short, steep hike and our first summit hike with the best views! We also got to see at least 6 Kea birds hanging out at the top which was pretty cool. Kea are alpine parrots. They are super curious birds and like to pick apart little shining objects or rubber, like tents or rubber on cars. Some might call them a pest but they are on the endangered bird list and, we thought, pretty neat!
Because of the rain we didn’t get to do all the biking we wanted but did get out for a bit of a ride on the near by rail trail. Other activities that we got up to at some point during our west coast time included some surf days (up in Westport), did the tourist lap of the pancake rocks just north of Greymouth, and hiked up to Fox glacier.
Highlights for me was having such a great place to spend our time. Spending time with the kids was great fun, even though it was full on at times. Also Heather is in the process of finishing her masters in child psychology so was awesome for me to talk a bit about work stuff which i’m actually starting to miss! We were sad to leave after a week but definitely plan to come back up for a visit.Read more