Day 10 - Towards the Southern Alps

Day 10 Thursday 9th September

Rose at 06.50 and following morning ablutions and breakfast was sat in the van listening to local radio with ongoing tales of woe with regard to the Christchurch earthquake. I must remember to check with Apollo if their Christchurch depot is still operational for when I need to return the van. I also need to verify that Quantas flights are still operating from Christchurch airport without any problem.

Sun splitting the trees this morning and although there are a few clouds in the sky, it is another beautiful day in Paradise.

A few ducks are wandering amongst the vans and being the easy touch that I am I tossed out some bread for them, only to be descended upon by a mob of seagulls. Seems that they are the same the world over. However, here are some of the ducks:

Mallard Ducks at Nelson Camper Site

I was getting ready to leave when I got into conversation with Colin, a chap a little younger than myself who is a joiner by trade but, who is currently installing solar power systems. So doing his bit for the planet. We had a good chat about the benefits and technicalities of such systems which branched into the benefits of the Stirling Engine. Most interesting. Then I took my anorak off.

Departed Nelson just after 09.00 to continue South on Route 6. However it wasn’t too long before I found myself having to stop to take photos. Something that was going to happen frequently during the day. I’ll let the following photos speak for themselves.

Snow on them thar hills - Near Richmond

View near Belgrove on Route 6

Another view near Belgrove

JB at Kohatu - Approaching the Hope Range

View near Kohatu

JB at the Hope Saddle Scenic Lookout in the Hope Range

White Cliffs at WhiteCliffs Creek

I had refuelled at Murchison and stopped for lunch at Berlins where I took the opportunity to photograph the Buller River:

Buller River at Berlins

Shortly after this I hit the coast and from there on, just about every bend in the road opened up a whole new incredible vista. Once again the futility of trying to do justice to the NZ scenery in a 3 week whistle stop tour became absolutely evident. Here are just a couple of views which I hope will express what I mean:

Small Cove near Charleston - Could have stayed all day.

Coastal View near Greigs just North of Greymouth

I finally arrived at the Kiwi holiday Park site at about 3.00 pm and went for a stroll on the beach which was all of about 50 metres away. A big open expanse of beach looking out over the Tasman Sea and with hardly a soul in sight:

Beach at Greymouth - 50 Metres from Camper Site

Greymouth Beach looking towards Southern Alps

Went off to get a few more provisions in, somebody keeps using all the stuff I buy. However, on return I got the van set up and had a quick early tea before hightailing it back to the beach in the hope of catching a good sunset. Unfortunately, not spectacular this evening but the following will give you some idea about what they might be like.

Sunset on Greymouth Beach

The rest of the evening was then, as usual, spent catching up with emails, Skype sessions and updating the Blog. Mind you with it being such a beautiful day, the temperature quickly dropped and I was eventually glad to get wrapped up in my nice warm duvet by 10.30.