Friday Mar 3, 2023 Arthur’s Pass to Reefton

 

Well Milo must have slept 20 of the last 24 hours but is feeling on the upswing. We cleared out of the Arthur’s Pass Air BnB and got ready to leave but we had to wait for a call back from the Banks Track contact to find out if we can shift our dates by two days. Deb got an email saying we could and we then knew we had time to do a 2 day loop to the west coast and then north somehow. The road over Arthur’s Pass is wiggly, 2 lanes and pretty narrow. We saw a side road which took us on the scenic route to Greymouth and we stopped at Lake Brunner for coffee, chai latte, and a shared blueberry muffin. Nice view and a nice young Canadian woman (Ottawa) who moved here three years ago who waited on us. I can see how you could get stuck here after visiting.

We ended up in Greymouth and found a big grocery store to stock up. We need food to take on the Bank Trak and we also wanted a cooler for the month long car trip (lunches). They are not called coolers here but are instead called “chilly bins”. So off to a Mitre 10 Mega store which is like our Home Depot where we found every size chilly bin you could imagine along with reusable ice packs (chilly packs?) for freezing. We tend to eat breakfast and dinners out but lunch is usually cheese and snacks, hence the chilly bin.

Our next excitement was Milo getting too close to the curb while parking in Greymouth and scraping the left front tire and rim, which then popped off the wheel cover and made the tire flat. It was raining of course so we sat on the sidewalk reading the manual to figure out where the jack was hidden .  I put the little fake tire on and a man walked by who told us that the tire store only 2 blocks away could replace the tire (it had a hole cut in it I assume from the rim). Sure enough, we pulled in just as someone was pulling out and 15 minutes later we were back on the road with a new tire and scratched up wheel cover. Sometimes things just work out.

Then on to Blackball, which is a tiny old gold and then coal mining town. When the coal mine closed in the 60’s, hippies moved in and now it’s a small tourist town with a salami shop and a hotel/bar called Formerly the Blackball Hilton. Deb bought me a beer at the hotel (to cure my cold) and we chatted up some Australian bicycle guys who were biking the length of the South Island and staying there the night.

Last stop was Reefton where Deb found a room with a restaurant attached which sounded good since it was misting out. Fish and chips, orange roughy pan-fried fish, cider, beer and live music (Beatles oldies). Life is good.