Saturday March 4, 2023 = Reefton to Christchurch

The cold is subsiding and thanks to modern medicine my nose stopped running. Still a little wheezy but definitely on the mend. We walked up the short main street of Reefton (did I mention it was the first town in NZ to get electric lights?) and a lone old BMW motorcycle putted up the street and stopped in front of a coffee shop and bakery, obviously the place to go. He was followed briefly by about six more of like and mixed vintage bikes all stopping at the same place. I chatted one biker up briefly and then Deb and I got cheese scones with butter and jam, of course along with the usual coffee (flat white I have learned to say) and Deb's chai latte. The bikers were loading up the day's trip, all in the 60-70 year old range, old friends.

Back down the street and found that the Bearded Miners Hut had just opened for the day. A couple of ZZ Top looking men were operating the miners shack that the Rotary Club had built for tourists 35 years ago. They had a fire going inside and they were hungry to share their wisdom. Both had great grandparents who came here in the mid to late 1800's. A couple of other older guys stopped by to chat and read the paper while we were there so this must be the morning men's club as well.

The gold rush hit NZ around 1848 when they found alluvial gold they could pan for and later gold embedded in quartz they had to hard rock mine. Then they added coal mining. They still mine gold and coal. These guys loved to talk so we spent a long time here getting all the NZ history and a little politics (Greens vs the mines, etc). He told us that the west coast is different than the east coast. "What you see is what you get" on the west coast. Things are simpler over here.

We then scored an AC adapter for our phone charger which we couldn't find anywhere at the airport. It was in a gas station for $10NZ ($6.2 USD). The woman there also filled us in on how things were going, Covid, etc. She, her son and her husband who drives a truck love their little town after living in Christchurch. Crazy nice people.

We loaded up the car and headed for Lewis Pass. Lewis Pass is the mountain pass to get us back to the east coast. There are hiking trails everywhere with tidy green and yellow signs. Short hikes, long hikes, you name it. We stopped at Lewis Pass and took a short scenic hike to get some pictures.

Next stop was Hanmer Springs, where they have a big commercialized hot springs complex. The town of 800 people started after WWI treating shell shocked troops in the warm sulfur waters. It bumped along as a remote healing place until sometime in the 1960's when they did a big development push, and it is now a big draw for the city of Christchurch an hour and a half away. Since it was Saturday afternoon the place was packed and wall to wall families up for the weekend. Too crowded for us, but we were able to walk through the place and see all the pools. Very kid friendly. Maybe come back on a week day.

We did the crackers and cheese thing for lunch and then on to Christchurch where Deb scored a really nice hotel. The traffic got faster and more aggressive. We stopped for gas ($2.40NZD per liter * 3.78 liters per gallon * $0.62 USD/NZD = $5.62 USD/gallon) and a local man helped us understand the self serve gas pumps there. He raises and exports venison and has been to the US a few times. Everyone here goes out of their way to chat.

Once back in Christchurch and checked in we walked to a place called Little High which is a collection of restaurants where you order from one or more kitchens and everyone sits in a large food court area. We chatted up a couple visiting from England who were visiting a son who moved to Australia. This sounded like a regular trip for them. We occasionally hear American accents but not as much as we would think.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around the downtown area and New Regent's Street where Deb had been before with Hannah and Erick three years ago. They have a tram you can ride that also has a restaurant on it. Christchurch seems a pretty hip modern city with the bonus of having all these nice Kiwis living here.