New Zealand - South Island, West Coast

Arrived in Murchison as daylight was beginning to fail (this photo was taken next morning!). Found a motel ($60NZ a night) and had a nice meal in a hotel restaurant nearby. Despite my best efforts I failed to get the food and beer bill over the equivalent of £10.

Next morning I set off for the west coast proper, with the aim of staying in Greymouth for the night.

A few kilometres out of Murchison took me to the "rope bridge" across the Buller river. I had remembered this place from my last trip, though it was apparent that some money had been spent on upgrading the facilities - though they still had the bosom's chair as well as a wire bridge across the river. Bought a ticket to go across the bridge, though decided not to pay the extra for a return trip on the chair - had done that last time - though my memory was of having to hang from a handle wearing a safety harness. The new facilities made the trip look a little too safe! The people at the ticket desk said that a few years ago the place had been bough over and hence the new money on the facilities.

Shortly after I arrived a bus load of german speaking tourists arrived, making the place feel a bit crowded. Thankfully though the sandflies didn't seem to be quite so bad this time though!

At this point the road follows the Buller river valley towards the coast. The Buller is apparently the last "untamed" (with hydroelectric dams) rivers on the west coast. The countryside is certainly relatively unspoilt and untamed as well. At this point the road passes under a sort of "half tunnel" cut into the rock.

Reached the coast at Charleston, south of Westport. From this point until near Greymouth, the road hugs the coast and, as you can see, it can be quite a dramatic drive in places. This part of the coast is pretty sparsely populated and much of it is national park land.

Probably the best known place on this part of the trip are the "pancake" rocks near Punakaiki (which is one of the few places around this part of the coast that has a few motels, shops and a choice of places to eat).

There is a fairly short walk on a well paved path down to the rocks and blowholes (which only operate at high tide and, presumably, when there are some decent waves).

When you first see the rocks you understand where they got their "pancake" name from - they are composed of lots of thin layers of rock.

This photo doesn't really do justice to the effect. The surrounding sea had quite a few dolphins in small groups. Used my telephoto to try to capture them, but decided not to bother putting the photos up here as they just look like small black blobs in the sea in the photos!

Continuing on south towards Greymouth, the area began to get more populated. Some quite tasty looking villas along the coast - there are obviously some people around here with money!

Arrived in Greymouth and found a motel (rather nice with a spa bath etc - but costing a little more than normal recently at $85NZ).

Greymouth itself is not a bad little town at the western end of the rail and road links over the southern alps at Arthurs Pass.

A few miles south of Greymouth is the local tourist feature - "Shanty Town". This is a sort of open air museum with buildings assembled from a number of places in New Zealand to recreate an early NZ European town.

Its actually quite well done and you are fairly free to wander around the buildings and surrounding countryside. Arriving in the late afternoon I had the place largely to myself (though as it closed at 5pm, I didn't have that long to look around).

The buildings are a fairly eclectic mixture - pubs, dentists, church etc. There is a reconstruction of a water wheel and the obligatory gold panning exhibition.

All very tastefully done.

Noticed that the rail engine had been built in Glasgow in 1896. Really is quite amazing the heavy engineering output of Glasgow during the main period of the industrial revolution - especially compared to now! I recall a previous trip to NZ where I went to the marine museum in Auckland where I was amazed at how many of the steam ship associated with NZ had been built on the Clyde.