rest of the west

Below the city of Greymouth there is only one more town of significant size and then only wee bits of civilization exist.  There is however a whole lot of beauty and nature in the form of mountains, rivers, beaches, and glaciers.  There were more people living in this area a hundred years ago than there are today.  The area has been mined for coal and gold and one can also find greenstone or jade.  We figured we might get lucky and find something!  So we headed to an old gold-mining area where we walked up a stream and had a go using our cooking skillet to look for gold. Fossicking was fun but we had no success with the gold, but we did find some jade at the beaches.  In Hokitika we got more provisions for the long journey down the coast and walked around the town meeting some interesting characters.  We met a self-proclaimed fruit loop lady who gave us a lesson on proper gold-panning techniques.   It was a little too late, but she sold us some white sage incense to ward off the “evil sandflies”. 

We set out down the road to the wild and raw West Coast to arrive at our first camping spot on Lake Ianthe.  Where we made dinner and watched the sun go down as we got swarmed by the infamous New Zealand sandflies. These flies are not really sandflies, their biting black flies that cause you to itch for days.  This was not our first encounter with these little black flies however it was the worst yet.  The Maori say that the Gods created the flies for population control in the area, and its working. After we managed to get them out of the van and go to sleep we heard the buzzing of mosquitoes.  They literally tag each other out, one attacks during the day and the other attacks at night.  So Eugene stayed up all night swatting mosquitoes as they buzzed through the tiny window cracks.  After a horrible nights rest we hit the road to get the hell out of there. Little did we know that nights like this are common on the West Coast.  We headed to the famous glaciers of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier.  We liked Fox Glacier better, it was easier to see and the amount of recession over the years was incredible. A big chunk of ice calved off while we were checking it out. It’s really insane to see how fast the recession is happening. From where the glacier was in 1750 to where it is now is about a 3 mile distance. 

After our viewings we headed to a great free camp spot at Gillespie’s  Beach. At the beach we hiked to a Fur Seal Colony. The next morning we got woken up by an endangered Kea, the only alpine parrot in the world.  It landed on Frenchy, waking us up at dawn. The weather was great on our long 18km, 7hr hike to the Welcome Flat Hot Springs.  The area was impressive! With river carved valleys surrounded by craggy snow-capped peaks and turquoise water.  We had a soak and then hit our sleeping bags. The next day there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  A kiwi guy told us it was as good as it gets.  We scored!!!  Not only was it beautiful but it was windy enough to keep the pesky sandflies at bay for a day.

We hiked out after two nights in the valley and headed to Haast where we rewarded ourselves with pitchers of beer and Whitebait patties at the local pub.  Haast is whitebait capital of New Zealand and the season was nearing an end so we had to indulge. Whitebait is a small fish which look like sardines yet don’t taste as fishy. The locals like to make patties out of them mixed with egg.  They were pretty good washed down with some cold lager. 

The next day we decided to head to the end of the road and check out the spectacular Jacksons Bay.   The water was so clear and calm we decided to go for a snorkel at low tide and look for some abalone.  To our surprise we found heaps tucked away in the cracks of rocks, I spotted them and Eugene dove down to get the big ones.  Low on provisions and excited to eat some fresh caught seafood we headed to another beach to process them and cook’em.  During the process we got attacked by the sandflies like never before!!!! The white sage didn’t work.  We still have bites on us a week later, but the abalone meal was worth it. The next day we headed over the Haast pass towards Wanaka where we were blessed to stay on a great piece of property in a house for the first time recuperating from the intensity of the West Coast.  It came at the right time and was well deserved.   Thank you Gary!!!!  Now we head East back to the Pacific.