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Day 4 Jan 30
Hokitika to Haast
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The rain overnight was torrential so I packed up and left the motel without
remembering to take a photo of it. The centre of town was damp and miserable
so I completed the shopping in the supermarket & bakers as quickly as possible,
took a photo down the main street and then sat in the car listening to
a radio report on Tony Blair’s moves to restrict press freedom. I rather
fear that the UK in which I used to live is no longer there & I may have
need of my New Zealand passport (assuming that they actually give me one).
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Hokitika
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The rain along the road varied from very light to very heavy, there was
low cloud and it was very dull. I decided that the chances of taking artistic
photos were strictly limited and that I would be better off taking documentary
ones of the places that I visited.
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Empire
Hotel, Ross
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Gold mine,
Ross
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Ross is a gold town. It has a scruffy but historic hotel and a huge hole
in the ground in which they are digging for gold. It has been argued that
it is the richest town in the world as there are very few people and it
sits on top of a huge amount of gold. The trouble is that the only way
to mine it would be to demolish the town and it is probably not an economic
proposition.
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Hari Hari |
Lake Ianthe is very pretty and I always stop there. It helps, however,
if the sky and water are both blue, rather than gray and black, respectively.
The flowers, however, add a touch of bright colour, both here and on many
other parts of the West Coast.
Left:
Lake Ianthe
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Hari Hari has a pub, a few houses and an extensive area of wilderness walkways
on the coastal marshes. I explored them a few years ago, just after they
had been seriously damaged by fire. It would be nice to go there again
but not in constant rain.
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Whataroa
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Whataroa
River
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Whataroa even has a post office and a small museum but it is best known
as the starting point for the tour of the white heron colony. I did this
a few years ago and, whilst it isn’t cheap, it is quite magnificent.
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In between the towns the road crosses rivers, swollen by the rain of the
last few days, passes over flat areas containing small farms and then plunges
back into the forests. The rain has also formed lots of small waterfalls
which cascade onto the sides of the road.
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Franz Josef has a glacier and a burgeoning tourist industry. The nicest
parts of the place are the two old churches. This time I entered the Roman
Catholic one, which is very simple and tidy inside ...… but which is beginning to show the need for considerable external maintenance.
As the splashes on the lens show, the rain was falling continuously.
I stopped at one of the many cafes for soup and a coffee and then left
as quickly as I could. On the way out I noticed that the motel and motor
camp, which the civil defence authorities have ordered closed because of
the flood risk posed by the river, are still open to guests.
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Fox Glacier is a smaller version of Franz Josef but without the interesting
churches. I didn’t even bother to take a photo.
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The roads throughout are lined with trees, some of them showing beautiful
blossoms in spite of the rain and also the ubiquitous ferns.
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West Coast Highway
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Bruce Bay is a favourite place and the weather actually improved enough
for me to be able to take a stroll on the beach in order to collect interesting
stones to take back to Wellington. The sand flies were a bit of a problem
but liberal use of some spray stopped their antics for a little while.
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Lake Paringa
salmon farm
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Knight's
Point
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The next stop after that is the Paringa Salmon Farm. I had a coffee and
a cake and bought some of their splendid smoked salmon for my tea. When
I arrived, there were two tourist coaches in the car park but they soon
left, leaving me almost alone to drink my coffee and study the view out
of the window.
Knight’s Point has an excellent look-out over the coast and is the place
where the Haast Highway was finally completed in 1960. It is a sobering
thought that such a main road has only been completed in my lifetime.
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Ship Creek
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Last stop before Haast was Ship Creek, an area of walkways on the sand
dunes and in the associated wetland forest. I saw all of these in beautiful
weather on my last visit, so I took some photos & returned to the car.
It is a particularly good source of Tane’s eyebrow, a plant which flourishes
on the dunes.
Haast is confusing in that there is Haast Junction on the main road, Haast
Township 3 kilometres further along the road and Haast Beach a similar
distance down the side road to Jackson’s Bay.
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Haast
Township
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I checked into the motel in the township, had a brief walk around the gardens
and into the town, then drove the car down the Jacksons Bay road towards
to the village of Okuru. This has a few beach houses, some offering B&B,
and a small church. I’m sure I took some photos but I can’t find them anywhere.
A shame, as it was a pretty place.
The road onto the beach seemed to be flooded so I retraced my steps, bought
some petrol and started the usual evening routine of story writing and
photo unloading, followed by dinner - smoked salmon, followed by pork chop
with a chili & onion marmalade, corn on the cob & new potatoes, accompanied
by a Nelson Pinot Noir (very cheap but not too bad). I did try to sit outside
the room to listen to the native birds in the bush but the sandflies made
their presence felt very fast & I couldn’t be bothered to spray myself
all over so returned to the shelter of the insect gauze in my room.
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