South Island Safari

 All right, it wasn’t really a safari but we did see a couple of birds.

We flew over to Nelson, hired a car and then spent a week driving round the top part of the South Island. Normally we head way down south but this time we thought we would try out some different places rather than visit the same old haunts.

Crazy weather seems to be the norm these days and it didn’t disappoint on this trip. Temperatures were up to 10°C above average along with high humidity and the potential for torrential rain due to an “atmospheric river” coming down from the tropics. Severe weather wasn’t forecast for a couple of days so we decided to head down the west coast (which generally bares the brunt of any bad weather) and stayed in Greymouth. 

Greymouth is most definitely not a tourist town and is strongly associated with fishing, logging and coal and gold mining and consequently is a bit of an eye sore but we liked the place, warts and all. We stayed in the Cat Room at the excellent Noah’s Ark Backpackers. Using the town as a base, we visited Hokitika, the Hokitika Gorge and a place called Shanty Town.

In contrast to Greymouth, Hokitika is pretty and pretty touristy and a nice place to while away a few hours. 

The Hokitika Gorge was the real surprise and was superb. Getting there involved a 20 minute drive from Greymouth and an easy 1-hour loop walk to the Gorge.

The ShantyTown Heritage Park is exactly that and recreates what NZ would have been like in the early days of settlement (from a Pakeha point of view anyway). It also boasts a nice little train ride and café and for $8 extra you can pan a bit of gold. It cost $38 to get in which felt about right given that it, in best Kiwi tradition, it was all rather low key – Disneyland it is not! It was super quiet when we were there which made the experience all the more enjoyable, not least as the zombie hoards finally arrived just as we were leaving.

We also visited Coal Creek Falls which are about 10 minutes drive and then an hours walk from Greymouth.

After three days in Greymouth the forecast bad weather duly turned up so we headed off over the Alps to the hopefully more sheltered eastern side. The drive over the Alps in heavy rain was a bit dodgy but also enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way. It is amazing what a bit of geography can do and once we crossed over the mountains the weather quickly dried out and the temperature soared. Eventually we arrived in Hanmer Springs, where we stayed at the Kakapo Lodge for another three days

Hanmer Springs are famous (in NZ anyway) for their hot pools which are very good indeed and an absolute must do. For us though, the highlight was the wonderful Hanmer Forest which starts just a short distance from the centre of the town. The forest covers an extensive area and has a number of trails ranging in length from half an hours walk to a couple of hours. All the trails were well maintained and fairly flat with the shortest one having various wood sculptures scattered about. We did this trip during May and consequently many of the trees were resplendent in their autumn colours and this coupled with very few people being around lent the place an especially tranquil vibe.

We would happily have stayed in Hanmer longer but we had pre-booked the last two nights in Nelson at our favourite NZ hostel the Tasman Bay Backpackers with their complimentary chocolate pudding and ice cream.This did however mean heading back over the ranges and back onto the maelstrom.

I won’t say much about Nelson suffice to say it rained solidly for two days, but we enjoyed ourselves regardless.