February 8 - westport to Greymouth - 102 km

An early start on a great morning.  It was clear and sunny, but cool, so full sun didn't bother us.  We got on the road shorty after 7, about 3/4 hour after sunrise.

Gently rolling countryside with 'nice' hills was the order of the day.

We made good progress and were inland for the first 30 km or so.  We saw this coal seam on the side of one of the hills.  I don't think it was good quality coal.

Here is one of our first views of the ocean.

And this is the hill we were climbing to get that ocean view.   It was actually not too steep.  We had 3 large hills today (100 - 200 meter climb each) but the gradients were not too steep - my guess would be 6 - 7 % (about Canadian highway standard)












 

 Penguin alert!  Shortly after seeing the sign, I caught this lady.  She was very unafraid, adn didn't seem inclined to fly.  It turned out she was a Bush Hen - the penguins aren't due in until April or May

On the insect front - I haven't mentioned cicadas yet, but we have heard lots of them, at times loud enough to be easily heard over any traffic.

here's a bunch more shots of the ocean.  You can see it was a spectacular day.

 The formation on the left are called the Pancake Rocks, a result of  sedimentary layers of limestone and other minerals.

Being ever vigilant, I found yet another vendor of Horse Poo.  Kara, Finn & Toby seem to have the best price, but there is some question as to the size of the bag. I wonder if there is a national stnadard size for an NZSHPB*


*New Zealand Standard Horse Poo Bag




On a sadder note - today we passed as close as we will to the site of the Pike River Mine disaster.  I was reminded of this when we passed a memorial for a 1967 mining accident at the Strongman Mine, where 19 miners died.

A couple of views of Greymouth, another town that sprang up in the mid 1800's after a gold strike.  The structure I am on is the floodway, built to keep the downtown protected from floods, of which there have been many.

Greymouth would be classified as a larger town, as it is big enough to have a MacDonald's.  The port looks pretty run down - I couldn't see any new docks.  There are a few fishing boat docks around.

Lastly, our current domicile, the Noah's Ark Backpackers.  We chose it not because of the name, but because the advertisement for it included a note about Bez, the Golden Retriever.  So we came here to get our Goldie fix.  Unfortunately, Bez is overweight.  

Noah's Ark was named because it was high enough up to survive the various floods they've had in this town.  Our room is on the upper floor, the left hand two windows.

 We'll continue down the coast tomorrow.  Not too sure how far we'll make it after the great day we had today.  That will depend on the weather, but apparently the route is easy.