The Wandering Chocoholic

Currently in Hokitika, about an hour south of Greymouth, on my way down to the Glaciers. Hokitika is a tiny little town but there are a lot of glassblowing and jade shops everywhere, which is pretty interesting since you can watch the artists at work. Shortly we’ll be heading towards Ross, which is a goldmining town that is estimated to be sitting on over $700 million in gold, if only they get around to mining it.

The West Coast of the South Island is pretty empty, since the towns were mostly built up over a century ago during the gold rush, and – unlike in Ross – most of the gold is gone so most towns have not recovered. So there are lots of tiny towns of the “blink if you miss it” variety, abandoned rail stations, closed quarries and mines, things like that. Greymouth was easily the most boring stop in New Zealand so far. I only spent one night and even that was probably too long, but it did break up the bus ride.

Yesterday’s stops included an hour’s walk along the coast at the inappropriately-named Foul Wind Cape to see the seal colony – lots of baby seals on the rocks – and a stop at Punakaiki to see the “pancake rocks”, called that because of how they formed in layers. Both fairly interesting. It wasn’t raining, which is a bonus since this region of New Zealand is pretty much always raining.

Onto the glaciers next. Funny that I’m heading towards snow just as it’s all melting back home. Should feel familiar, anyhow.