Mon 25 Jan - The West Coast

After another early morning swim, this time in the raging surf of the west coast rather than the millpond of Golden Bay, we headed south for our drive down to Franz Josef Glacier. What a drive this turned out to be with the road alongside the beach for mile after mile. It reminded us very much of the drive alongside the Pacific on Route 1 from San Francisco to LA and was every much as picturesque. We were in danger of disrupting our schedule as we kept stopping for photos! Of the towns on the west coast Greymouth and Hotitika were the only ones worth a mention, all the others were much smaller than the map appeared to indicate and in England would have hardly registered as villages! Greymouth is the regional centre and was reasonably interesting whilst Hotitika was a charming little town famous for the Greenstone, or Jade, found in the surrounding area. We stopped here for a late lunch and to buy a Greenstone pendant for a fellow bellringer in Colerne who had specifically requested such a purchase.
Here it should be noted that the lunch was late due to our stopping off at a Quilt shop en route. Christine had been dozing and awoke to see a sign for a quilt shop flash by which I had completely missed. Needless to say we turned around and spent the next 45 minutes talking quilts and retrievers (yes, she had one of those too) whilst the non-quilter’s stomach was rumbling! However she did point us in the direction of a good place for lunch in Hotitika so the visit wasn’t totally without its plus points. Another plus for Hotitika was the existence of a wonderful old picture house which was featuring “ Morris, my life with Bells On”, a film which Christine has raved about to everyone but no cinema in the UK seemed to be showing it!
From Hotitika we pushed on to Franz Josef Glacier where we stayed in a cabin in another excellent ‘Top Ten’ holiday park.