[Punakaki, New Zealand] After yesterdays awesomeness today was bound to be far more subdued (besides the fact that we can barely move our arms and legs). We drove over to ‘the other local glacier’ (the Frans Josef) and stretched our legs walking up to the nearest view point. It was another spectacular view and the valley does look much deeper than the Fox glacier but cloud hid the top section. The terminal face looks very impressive. Massive.

Frans Josef township (ie village) was very quiet. Seems NZ tourism has take a big dip this year. We went in search of the indoor ice climbing wall marked in the LP guide but figured out that it is gone and the only building that could have been a climbing wall is now a freshly painted National Kiwi Centre. We grabbed a few essentials (milk, bread, biscuits, biltong!). The shop obviously caters for campers; at the checkout there was a box of single knives for sale for those nanas that have misplaced one from their rental vans. We grabbed one to replace the one I lost 🙂

We cruised through one horse towns and some slightly bigger ones occasionally stopping to snap a view but the weather was far from ideal. Harihari is a single street town with a monument and road side display commemorating the flight of Guy Menzies. The first person to fly from Australia to New Zealand. He crash landed in a marsh just outside of town. One thing I have noticed is that almost all of these tiny villages have a half-pipe. Must bring my board next time !

Pukekura, according to the 2007 LP guide has a permanent population of 2. We can believe it. It’s claim to fame is a road-side diner/museum/shop called ‘Bushmens Centre’. Morning tour buses and hard-core bikers frequent it and you won’t find a much more politically incorrect place in NZ. They used to serve up possum burgers but laws now prohibit it. Every surface in the place is covered with notices or objects that (depending on your sensibilities) are hilarious or insulting. It was an experience for sure and the ‘Bambi toasted sarmi’ wasn’t too bad either. For a bunch of gun toting rednecks they are militant environmentalists when in comes to 1080 poison. A chemical used by the DoC to reduce the possum and pest populations. I must read a bit more about it – the rhetoric in the cafe made us skeptical of their argument.

Hokitika is one of the larger towns on the coast but is still tiny – at least they have cell phone reception – our first for the day! The main tourist street is lined with Greenstone (jade) jewelery stores. V had a look around one but the stuff is just crazy expensive. We pushed on up the coastal road passing through Greymouth and noticed a turn-off for Taylorville – had to pop in for a photo of V’s own little town. A tiny village that time forgot with nothing going and nobody around. We had a quick look around and noticed a number of front lawns immaculately presented. Another odd little spot. Back on the road, the coastline was incredibly rugged and appeared treacherous and menacing in bad weather like today. In spite of the windy road and bad weather we arrived safely at Punakaki (still no cell phone).

The camp ground is very near to the beach and had more character than some but the rain was pouring and the wind howling. We had to wait a while for high tide – the recommended time to see the blowhole 5 minutes back up the road. The area is known for the blowhole and the ‘pancake rocks’ – odd geological formations that look like huge stacks of pancakes. The blowhole wasn’t impressive (we want a small one that produces a huge geyser) but the pancakes were cool even in the rain.

Cooking and just moving around in the wet and wind wasn’t fun. Seems our little tent for the rear of the van is not designed to handle heavy downpours. Tomorrow will be a very damp and muddy start. Hope it’s sunny!

[Pictures: Frans Josef glacier rushing towards us. Bushmens – odd spot. Hokatika town centre and V at home. Stone pancakes in the rain]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi