NZ2024 - Leg 16, March 11 Haast to Greymouth

 Typical of the west coast of New Zealand is rain.  Essentially, we're in a temperate rainforest, so it makes sense that it's going to be rainy.  This morning is no different.  It wasn't raining when we arrived at the hotel, but it started during the night.  It poured, in fact.  But inside, in bed, where it was warm and dry, it didn't matter.  In fact, it was really kind of nice laying in bed and listening to the rain.  Kind of comforting.  

There was something to be considered, however, and that was the fact that the car was parked in the parking lot, at least 40 meters away, and there was no cover between the lobby door and the parking lot.  Nor was there cover between the room door and the lobby - where the entrance to the breakfast room was.  There was, however, a covered walkway between the room and the parking lot on the other side of the hotel, so I will just run through the rain to get the car and drive it around to the other side, and then we can at least keep the luggage from getting wet.

But breakfast first.  Coffee first!  We were told we could get a full hot buffet breakfast right there at the hotel, for only $26 extra.  That seemed reasonable.  Unfortunately, it wasn't really a fantastic breakfast, and the coffee was instant coffee!  Too bad, but we had already started, and we weren't sure where else we could even stop.  So we ate, and then loaded up and started off for Greymouth in the rain.

There was a cafe not too far down the road, in the wrong direction, and a bit difficult to figure out how to find it.  But it was at least open - after all it was Sunday - and they had coffee.  Real coffee (i.e. Flat White).  They also had a couple of busloads of tourists that had beat us there, and the lineups were insane.  We needed coffee, so we waited in line.  It took about 30 minutes to get through the line, order, and wait for them to make it and get it to us.  And the coffee wasn't even great.  Oh well, we can't have everything go perfectly!  But not a great start to the day.

Off we went, thinking that we were glad we had done the glacier heli-tour back at Mt. Cook, because if we had waited till today and done the Fox or Franz Joseph tour, we'd have had yucky weather.  The drive would be over four hours - without stopping for anything - so we agreed to just trade driving every hour or so.  Driving along the west coast - like almost everywhere here - takes more energy because of the frequent curves, hairpin and otherwise, and more attentive driving with narrower roads than what we're used to - plus driving on the left side of the road from the righthand side of the car.  In the rain.  No, not complaining, just explaining - it's tiring.  

So we drove for a while, without really seeing much of interest, partly because the clouds and the fog are so low that we can't see the incredible mountains we are probably driving through and around.  What we can see is lovely, though, and it's too bad there aren't any lookouts so far.  Soon however, the rain starts to taper off, and the fog starts to life.  Then it comes back again, with the rain....  That's just the west coast.

Near Paringa, we're really feeling the effects of not having had a good coffee yet, and from a distance we see a red building on the left that says "Cafe", but it doesn't look open.  However, up ahead to the left there is another cafe at a salmon farm, according to a sign.  We take a chance, and sure enough, not only is it open, it's the same one we saw from the road.  The driveway is somewhat hidden, and then there is a covered walkway from the parking lot to the front door.  It really is a salmon farm, too, South Westland Salmon Farm, with big ponds, and you can feed the fish.  We can see them in the ponds/tanks, but don't stop to feed them.

  

A lovely gift shop beckons as well as coffee, and we get our takeaways and a couple of gifts to take home.  It's still raining, but not hard.  I guess the locals have the rain thing figured out, based on the covered walkways we've been seeing...  This time, the coffee is fantastic.

Next stop is near Franz Joseph glacier - there's a trail head next to a long bridge, and the sight from the bridge is enough that we want to stop and check out the view.  This is so similar to the riverbed that is fed from the Tasman glacier, but here, most of the huge boulders on either side of the river are stained red - it appears to be from a lichen that we've been seeing throughout the west coast.  It's so fine, however, that it appears to have been painted on.

  

We pull over to a parking area, and walk back across the bridge so we can see the views more clearly.  Not for long however, we still are only halfway to Greymouth, and were hoping to get there in time for a nice supper and to catch up on the blog, email etc.  The only other stop we make is in a different pulloff to have some of our snacks - apples, cheese, (yes, more cheese), and yogurt.  The sun, although not out completely, makes a brief appearance, and the cloud seems to lift off a mountain beside us briefly.  

Eventually, we arrive in Greymouth, at the Alpine Rose Hotel, and the owner cheerily greets us and shows us our room.  It's delightful!  He asks if we want milk for our coffee, and when I say yes please, he pulls out the cutest little milk bottle, full and cold.  He lets us know they have a deal with the local taxi company and a brewery just down the road - Monteith's - where we can get driven there and back for free, and we get 10% off our meal and drinks!  

We decide that's too good to let past, so off we go after settling in, getting a taxi ride for only a few blocks - which is very nice given that it's still raining - and then picked up afterward and dropped at the hotel.  The taxi driver is pleasant, chatty and has a pretty thick NZ accent - he was born and raised in Greymouth and lived there his whole life, he said.

Although it was a bit of a different day than we've had up till now, it was still very beautiful, and a bit slower paced, which we needed.  Tomorrow, we will have our eyes filled even more, with a trip up to the Pancake Rocks (if it's nice) and then the TransAlpine scenic rail trip to Christchurch.