Day 18 1st October 2010. Greymouth to Panakaiki to Shantytown to Hokitika and back to Greymouth

Rugged coastline between
Greymouth and Punakaiki

Wave hitting rocky outcrop

Blow Hole

Pan cake

We had an action packed day today.  Firstly we set off to Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. Our travel took in some beautifully rugged coastline on the way.  Certainly well worth the 30min drive, they were amazing.  We can certainly see why they are called pancake rocks as they are just like an oversized stake of pancakes, pancake upon pancake.   The sheer size of the rock formation was amazing as well as incredibly obvious layers of stone formed millions of years ago and pushed to the surface to eroded over the millions of years and continually being so.  Bridges and caves have been eroded causing swells and blow holes.  The waves entering the  blow holes and caves create a continuous explosion of water and sound.  On the way round we met one of the ‘locals’ family of birds called New Zealand Weka.  They were a small, brown, hen like bird and quite friendly.  On talking to the ladies in the café they can be a bit of a pest as they get into the buildings foraging for food and leave their calling cards.  We saw a family with I suspect a fairly new chick.

Weka and chick

After leaving Pancake Rocks we drove back towards Greymouth and through another 15mins to Shantytown.  Shantytown is a small township using some original buildings set up as a living museum to the gold diggings.  There was a China Town, school, shops, jail, hospital etc.  They also had a steam train that was used to transport logs for the mill that was set up to show the milling process and other information.  Here was also where the gold mining happened and we saw a demonstration of gold sluicing and the girls had a more successful go at panning.  If only we had known what we know now when we were in Ross things may have been different.  Although I suspect some gold dust may be sprinkled in the tubs of rubble for we tourists.  But that beside, the guy gave us good instructions on how to pan and the girls set to work.  After some minutes the girls became tired, the guy worked his way through the other panners and finished the job before bottling in a little vial their panned gold.  The girls were very impressed., although the gold seemed very glittery.  After panning we left and headed to the last leg of our day, a further 20mins back to Hokitika.

Striking it rich........not!

We arrived in Hokitika around five a little disappointed to find most of the jade and jewellery shops were closed.  Seemed to be the only place we have seen closed spot on 5pm.  We found one jewellery & second hand bookshop and had a chat to the owner.  Cos bought a book on NZ “Lord of the Rings” movie sites (at a bargain price), and confirmed that he had indeed seen and proudly recognized some of the movie locations on our trip.  The book store owner suggested a walk on the beach if the girls were interested in rocks.  So we did, and it was not quite the beaches we are used to.  The sand was dark and almost sticky like the sand we find near the mangroves.  Instead of shells washed ashore there were rocks.  The girls found quite a few to add to their collection.  The girls have visions of making their fortunes tumbling the rocks to polish them and making jewellery.

Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch via Arthur’s Pass, which famous for stunning Alpine scenery. We should arrive late afternoon after factoring in narrow winding mountain roads and various photo stops to take in the scenery.