West Coast Continued - Nov 27-29

Again catching up on some old photos:

We stopped in a little craft town of Hokitika and puttered around for half a day. Just as we were about to leave I spotted Sock World and asked Megan if she wanted to stop. Did she ever! She asked why it hadn't been in the tourist guidebook in big bold letters. Turns out the owner is semi famous - at least with sock knitters. She collects vintage sock knitting machines (largest collection in the world) and also sells a replica version. Megan knew all about her so it was fun to chat with her a bit and see how intricate the machines were. Megan also picked up a few skeins of felted marino yarn for some future project.

The west coast is known for its kayaking but much of it is steep creeking and requires helicopter shuttles. The Styx river is one that you can hike into (45 minute hike carrying your boat so still not easy). I didn't have a boat but we decided to scope it out just in case I made it back some time. A little more my size than the last one I scouted.

Lots of short little hikes to waterfalls throughout the area. Dorthy Falls was this one.

In Greymouth, the main attraction is called Pancake Rocks. They've been weathered by wind and water and look a bit like a stack of hotcakes.

Megan snapped this photo showing the sun just peaking through the clouds off in the distance.

And this photo of some goofy tourist.

We took a hike in Tauranga to see another seal colony. The terrain undulated a bit but was easy walking and offered up fantastic views. Along the way there was a light house, shipwreck replica, and an astrolabe (deivce for determining latitude while at sea).

And this time there were actually seals at the seal colony! Most of them were just laying around sleeping but we did get to see a few get in and out of the water. Quite a contrast watching them buck around on land and then seeing them slicing through the water.

Up at the end of the road on the west coast in Karamea, there were some more caves we explored. These had some special formations on the floor that looked like dried up mud but were actually sediments. They also had weta (large crickets) and spiders (6" in diameter). We saw both.

It had been pretty wet lately so we used the wind to help dry out our tent at one of the stops. Reminded me of playing with the parachute like we used to in elementary school gym class. Traveling around as we have been, you start to get an appreciation for the finer things in life ... dry socks, comfortable bed, and clean underwear.

In one of the small towns I popped into a tiny hole in the wall bar. I was greated by a little 8 yr old girl who proudly told me she was running the bar today. I ordered a whitebait patty (local delicacy) and she promptly took me back in the kitchen and started handing me bag after bag of frozen whitebait. Now I've never had whitebait so I didn't know but it seemed like more than we needed to make a patty. Luckily her mom ventured in and got it all straightened out. Whitebait are tiny (5mm long) transparent fish cought with a net or screen. They're the young form of fish that migrate back from the sea up rivers to spawn. There's about a month long season for catching them and they can sell for more than $75/kg. Luckily my patty wasn't that heavy.