Day 13........Abel Tasman to Greymouth......

Bonjour and all that jazz!!  I am currently sitting in a campsite in a place called Greymouth in the pouring rain and driving wind.  On the up side though, its right on the beach.....On the downside Greymouth does exactly what it says on the tin.....but more on that later, lets get on with the day in hand.

So it was farewell to a sunny Montueka holiday park and heading south down the west coast towards the Glaciers, via Greymouth as it is rather a long way....

Inland for a bit first and through the Montueka Valley on the Montueka valley Highway which hugs the river winding through fields of fruit, vegetables and hop-bines making it look like Kent on steroids and a very very very good day.....The views have now changed to small holdings and farms surrounded by craggy mountains (Im sorry I have to stop to vomit and the German couple sitting at the terminal next to me have started to snog, loudly and very close to me......eeeewwww.  That's it, bugger off.....) where was I?  Oh yes, craggy mountains.  The roads are still twisty and up and down but the valleys are wider and I have no idea how anyone gets anywhere here in the time that the sat nag says.  It's stop start for photos every 5 mins and a journey that is probably 30 miles as the crow flies is 90 by these roads!  And driving here is exhausting!  Most corners have to be taken in second gear and poor Trevor's clutch is taking a bashing.....so is my left arm.  And Lee (the Aussie sat nag) has stopped talking to me.  All he kept saying today was 'GPS signal lost'....must have been something I said.

Now, Buller river and Buller Gorge were upon me and I stumbled across The Buller Gorge Swingbridge which although is NZ's longest, it isn't exactly the highest at 17m.  But it was a wee bit interesting all the same!  And the fun part was that the 110m long walk across was made even better by the 110m flying fox zip wire on the way home!! Oh yes and I have a video!  Now it may sound rip-roaringly thirilling and it was quite good, but it was more of a leisurely swing than a zip. But I enjoyed it none the less!

Once that was done it was onto Westport where the road south then hugged the coastline which was wet, wild, rugged, remote and windswept, much like most west coast coastlines I have visited! 

The next stop on my agenda was Pancake Rocks, mainly because the rocks look like pancakes.  So I spied a sign and some cars and got out leaving Trevor guarding my belongings and headed out on the 15min trip.  Well, the Rough Guide had bigged this up and although it was quite nice and the rocks indeed did resemble pancakes, after a few snapshots I was back and on my way. 

2km down the road I ran into the real Pancake Rocks.  Shut up.  Cafe's, restaurants, gift shops, big signs and even bigger pancake rocks.  Now these really were worth seeing!  So after avoiding making eye contact with the other numpties that I had met at Pancake rocks mark 1 and making the most of the photo opportunity, Trev and I were back on the road.

The next part of the trip was unremarkable and then we hit Greymouth and I thought 'what have I done....'  But it's only for one night so lets get on with it.  Greymouth is an old mining town, past its sell by date, at the mouth of a river and Grey.  But after stopping for supplies and then seeing a sign in a garage when I filled up, coupled with the friendly attitude of the staff I thought 'Im gonna give this town a chance!!'

So the campsite loomed into view I was pleasantly surprised, right on a windswept but lovely beach, with everything you need including a warm laundry room with computers so I am dry whilst blogging on (and the bogens that live on the site in their cars and trailers are next door with the Germans shouting about something......)

So I was going to watch the sunset on the beach but then the heavens opened so it will be back to Trevor and a game of solitaire before bed.....