Greymouth

We drove the short few kilometres from Runanga this morning and found a layby for campers next to the beach – ideal for walking dogs.

The west coast sea looks treacherous. The beaches are rocks and pebbles with the occassional little oasis of sand, but in amongst those rocks are little bits of treasure – white marble, greenstone, quartz with sparkly metal in it and other rocks that are fascinating just because of their shapes and colours.  Looking towards the south we could see  Mt Cook in the distance with the remnants of snow on it.

Once we were all exercised we headed south for about 10 km to Shanty Town. This is a replica timber logging town of the 1800’s with the various town buildings set up the way they might have been way back then.

The tour began with a short trip in an old steam train that would have been used for hauling cariages of logs. It took us up a bush line to an old sawmill.

That was followed by a tour of the sawmill and then an opportunity to pan for gold. We let Bruce do this and he came up with a few grains at the bottom of the pan (he was allowed to keep these). We took some time to walk aroundthe town and as Bruce was really really bad, he had a short stint in the local jail. I found the local hospital very interesting as they had several examples of iron lung machines that were used to keep people with polio alive.

All told, the place was pretty well done. We returned to the motorhome, which was parked close to the Dethleffs belonging to a couple from Taranaki, and set off to find somewhere cool for lunch.

Bruce was determined to find a shady spot under some trees so we drove 20kms south looking for such a spot without being able to find one. Therefore we returned to town and our pledge to have lunch before afternoon tea time today came to nought. Eventually we found a little bakery in the middle of Greymouth and close to that was a lovely parking place under a tree! Never mind, we saw the little town of Kumara on that adventure.

Our last visit for the day was to the Speight’s Brewery. We did the tour through the brewery and for the first time I now understand how beer is made. The tour comes complete with 4 free glasses of beer each so we could try the different craft beers made on site, so we each had a couple and then decided to find a camp site for the night.

There is a lovely park by the bridge into Greymouth from Westport that is a freedom camp for motorhomes and very popular. We are all settled in ready for a good nights rest and a longish drive tomorrow to Hamner Springs through the Lewis Pass. There may not be internet coverage there so there may not be a blog tomorrow night.