Saturday March 18 - Hokitika to Westport

 Woke up to a blue sky day, which was more than welcome after yesterday's deluge (which was exciting!!). Coffee and tea in the room of course. Last night we went to see the glow worms which are bizarre bugs that emit a blue light, kind of like our fireflies in the states but they glow continuously, not blink. It's only a kilometer north of town (Hokitika) and there's a sign and a small parking area. We brought headlamps expecting a nice hike into a dark cave but it was only 100 feet off the road, no cave, but a 3 sided rock wall with glowing blue lights covering them. There were 6 or 8 people there in the dark. Hannah had told us about this place. They charge $99 each in Te Anau for a cave tour to see the glow worms but this was the same thing. Read about them here.

This morning we packed up and decided to eat breakfast out in downtown Hokitika. We really like the feel of this little town. They have the ocean "right out back" and there are lots of shops on the main street. We looked for the bagel place but only found the Stone Oven Bakery Cafe. It was sunny so we sat out on the street and did some good people watching. This is one of those struggling tourist towns but they seemed to be doing okay. I don't know what it is about possums but this town has three possum stores. If you ask a kiwi they will tell you that the possums were brought here by the Aussies and now they are eating all the trees which is killing the trees and killing the birds. (The Aussies seem to be responsible for pretty much anything wrong here like wallabies (also a pest) and pretty much any invasive species (tourists??). But they say it in a nice way like the Canadians would back home.

So the marketing pitch is that by killing possums wholesale, and making clothing, blankets, baby booties, keychains, and shoe liners out of them, you are being green. And by buying these items you are helping the planet (or at least New Zealand). Which is probably all true. But it is a little weird to see so much possum fur hanging on racks for sale here. Kind of pricey too. And more exciting for me the retired mechanical engineer is that one of them has a sock making machine museum in it. Wow!! My old roommate from grad school has a few sock machines he's converting to computer control, but I'd never heard of these things before. The shop worker guarding all the possum socks showed me the machines out back (while keeping an eye on the possum sock thieves) and said she also sells new sock knitting machines. Guess what everybody is getting for Christmas this year!!

Next stop was the Hokitika Gorge walk which is 30 minutes east. About a 1 hour loop through a deep gorge. The water in the gorge is usually a beautiful shade of turquoise (we saw the pictures), but was flowing slate gray due to the recent heavy rain. The DOC (Department of Conservation) does a fantastic job. All the DOC sites have bathrooms of some kind, well maintained trails (in today's case including suspension bridges) and like our National Parks in the U.S. they are simple, well built  and easy (aka cheap) to maintain. And it all goes under the category of tourism. There is every kind of excursion available here on the South Island from walking to biking to e-biking to cruises to helicopter rides to hut systems, you name it. Tourism is a big deal here and it also gives the Kiwis great places to take their families on vacation.

After the gorge we took the long way way around Lake Kaniere. The road went from skinny two lane with single wide bridges to skinny 1.5 lane paved road to gravel 1.5 lane road to gravel 1 lane road with sheep pasture pulloffs to a sort of prayer based road system where you hope nobody is coming the other way, then back to 1 lane then 1.5 lane, etc, until we got back to the two lane paved road. We just beat a big bicycle group that had just finished their prayers before heading out so we didn't have to witness any carnage there.

Now back to Hokitika and north on good old RT 6, the main west coast road. It follows the ocean where it can but now and then cuts inland and twists around a bit. Lots of pull offs for taking disappointing pictures (they can't capture the beauty). A quick stop in Greymouth for gas and a long chat with the nice woman running it who moved here from the North Island. We stopped for lunch (crackers, cheese, fruit, salami) at Point Elizabeth Walkway on the ocean. A Mennonite family was having lunch on the stony beach and the kids were jumping in the waves, good entertainment.

Next stop was Pancake Rocks in Punakiki with another really nice DOC walking path that takes you right down to the unusual rocks that look like skinny pancakes stacked up and eroded. Deb chatted up the man running the visitor center and he pointed out the giant new visitor center being built behind the existing tiny one. Should be done by this fall.

So the last stop was the AirBnb in Westport where we will be staying a couple nights. Westport was digging gold out of its rivers here and then English sealers (the furry kind) came for a bit, but the real economic engine was coal. Starting in the 1880's and still running today is the largest coal mine in New Zealand (or it was the largest way back when). They ship high grade coal to Japan and other steel makers. Not sure where all that happens as I have not seen any trains or boats anywhere.

We walked downtown to the Denniston Dog and got a pint, dinner salad (Deb) and fish and chips (me), then walked around the downtown (no possum people here), picked up a few groceries and walked back to the AirBnB. Nice sunny day today and should be the same tomorrow.