Another lovely day dawned and we headed off down the West Coast. The West Coast of the South Island is a strip 30km wide by 400km long with a population of only 32,000. The roads are certainly quiet, even considering it was a Sunday. And the two towns where we walked around, too: most businesses were open, but their proprietors were gathering flies not business.
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The highway is somewhat reminiscent of Hwy 1, although not as cliff-edgy and of course the vegetation is different.
In this "road picture" we have a one-lane bridge. More about one-lane bridges later.
There was an onshore flow that made mist; otherwise the weather was fine all day.
A few more coast-side pics in the gallery. Note the slide-show view has a "film strip" at the top of the screen. You can use that to skip down to the end.
Pancake Rocks
Pancake Rocks is a popular scenic area, some unusual sedimentary rocks that have worn away to create arches, boiling pots and blow-holes. The boiling pots and blowholes are most dramatic at high tide. Unfortunately, we were there at low tide, so we saw fairly calm waters, but the pancake rocks were interesting.
It is home to a large colony of white-fronted terns.
Here as elsewhere we are very impressed with the elaborate walkways, boardwalks and bridges that the D.O.C. provides wherever the public is invited.
Then we headed on down to Greymouth.
Jade and Beer
In Greymouth we pursued one of Marian's interests, looking at NZ "greenstone" artifacts. These are a big export item, pendants and other ornaments in Maori nature-inspired forms carved in the hard native jade.
Back in the village of Havelock, waiting for the Mussel Pot restaurant to open for a meal of mussels, we looked in a gallery and saw some beautiful (and expensive) pieces by a local jade artist. That's all right, Marian said, I have a list of big jade places on the west coast and we'll see things as good or better there. So Greymouth was the first test of that theory and things don't look good. The greenstone places were open (their clerks patiently gathering dust waiting for customers) but the quality wasn't up to our now-highly-tuned expectations.
One other thing to do in Greymouth was to take a tour of the Monteith's Brewery and sample some beers.
Marian, looking at kettle of fermenting wort, "Ewww, you drink that stuff?"
David: "Yuh-huh, I do..."
One-lane Bridges
One-lane bridges are common on NZ roads. They are obviously a money-saver, and with low traffic levels, they work fine. As you approach you see either a black arrow or a white arrow. If it's black, the opposite direction has priority. You slow way down and look ahead to see if anyone is coming. If not, sail on through; but if so, pause and wait for them to cross. If you are coming from the white-arrow direction, you only pause if someone is already on the bridge. Also, as you exit the bridge, if somebody waited for you, you give them a friendly wave or thumbs-up.
Here is the most egregious example of a one-lane bridge we've seen yet. Not only is it long (most are short) and narrow and rough, it is shared with a railroad! We hope the train knows to wait its turn...
Wee Little Fishies
OK, up in Collingwood, waiting for the Farewell Spit tour, we talked to a guy who was fishing in the estuary with a net. He was fishing for "whitebait" which are tiny fish that travel in schools. He told us that we should try the whitebait in Hokitika ("hokey-teeka" and we love saying that name. Hokey-teeka hokey-teeka hokey-teeka...).
So after checking two more disappointing greenstone emporia in Hokitika we had a dinner of Whitebait Omelette.
Those are the whitebait, those little white fishies. They are so delicate they apparently aren't skinned or boned, just rinsed and tossed in the pan. All the little eyes looking up from the plate are a bit disconcerting, but they tasted ... delicious ... slightly fishy, is all. Considered a delicacy around here. Everyone is disappointed that this year's whitebait run looks sub-standard.
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