South Island, New Zealand, Part V
Hey everyone! Sorry for keeping you hanging for so long, hopefully I can get caught up here in the next week or so. Back to business!
Heading south into Greymouth we stopped there and checked out a history museum, grabbed groceries and finally found a place to purchase Gold pans. We were super excited about our prospecting endeavors and I got Andy pretty pumped on it. Heading inland on the 7 we took a smaller road into Nelson Creek where we found a great free campground with flushing toilets, gold panning in the river and a small country cafe/bar just above us. It was a little rainy but I jumped in the creek with my pan and started searching for some color! After an hour of thick mosquitoes and no gold we called it quits and headed to the pub for some grub and ciders. A good group of locals there told us stories and we ended up hitting it off with the owners Hellie and Roy, they lended us a shovel for the morning gold rush. In the am we hiked the river and spent a good two hours digging and panning, still no gold! The remainder of the day we spent charging around on the back roads, we stopped at a large lake called Moana, where there was nothing going on but pool and ciders again. We found a picnic area on the other side to stay for the night.
From Moana we traveled back to Greymouth then South on the 6 into Hokitika, we walked the town and checked out the shops. After a quick cider at the town clock we took a drive to lake Kaniere and found a spot for the night. Andy backed the van into some deep mud and buried it pretty good, my redneck instincts kicked in and I throttled the beast out! After that mishap we sat down and realized it was way to early to stop for the day so we headed out towards "the gorge". We followed a map we had gotten in town, you know, one of those maps that looks like a 12 year old had drawn. Well that got us out into the boonies on a cow poo covered road, one that we were opening and closing cattle fences only to get to a dead end that maybe a fully kitted out Jeep would have taken. I thought it was the way but Andy convinced me to stop and ask someone, a super nice farmer told us that we were way off and pointed us down the correct path. The gorge seemed like something out of a sci-fi flick. The water was an unexplained bright teal, like teal paint, thick looking and not opaque at all. We did a small hike there and found a dead end campsite just down the way.
Hey everyone! Sorry for keeping you hanging for so long, hopefully I can get caught up here in the next week or so. Back to business!
Heading south into Greymouth we stopped there and checked out a history museum, grabbed groceries and finally found a place to purchase Gold pans. We were super excited about our prospecting endeavors and I got Andy pretty pumped on it. Heading inland on the 7 we took a smaller road into Nelson Creek where we found a great free campground with flushing toilets, gold panning in the river and a small country cafe/bar just above us. It was a little rainy but I jumped in the creek with my pan and started searching for some color! After an hour of thick mosquitoes and no gold we called it quits and headed to the pub for some grub and ciders. A good group of locals there told us stories and we ended up hitting it off with the owners Hellie and Roy, they lended us a shovel for the morning gold rush. In the am we hiked the river and spent a good two hours digging and panning, still no gold! The remainder of the day we spent charging around on the back roads, we stopped at a large lake called Moana, where there was nothing going on but pool and ciders again. We found a picnic area on the other side to stay for the night.
From Moana we traveled back to Greymouth then South on the 6 into Hokitika, we walked the town and checked out the shops. After a quick cider at the town clock we took a drive to lake Kaniere and found a spot for the night. Andy backed the van into some deep mud and buried it pretty good, my redneck instincts kicked in and I throttled the beast out! After that mishap we sat down and realized it was way to early to stop for the day so we headed out towards "the gorge". We followed a map we had gotten in town, you know, one of those maps that looks like a 12 year old had drawn. Well that got us out into the boonies on a cow poo covered road, one that we were opening and closing cattle fences only to get to a dead end that maybe a fully kitted out Jeep would have taken. I thought it was the way but Andy convinced me to stop and ask someone, a super nice farmer told us that we were way off and pointed us down the correct path. The gorge seemed like something out of a sci-fi flick. The water was an unexplained bright teal, like teal paint, thick looking and not opaque at all. We did a small hike there and found a dead end campsite just down the way.
