Fox Glacier - Greymouth

After breakfast, we started our drive to Greymouth. The weather was still very overcast and consistent rain meant the travelling was a bit slower.

We stopped at Hokitika, a medium sized town,about 30 minutes south of Greymouth.
There are loads of jade shops in NZ and there was a huge one here, so we decided to go and have a look as they had carvers at work. We did some videoing of it and chatted to the guys who were making the jewellery. Very interesting.

We continued on to Greymouth and checked into the Coleraine Motel. Nice and modern room. We stopped for a rest and made a cuppa.

After that we had a little drive around town, looking for some wireless network so we could log in to check our email, as the room did not have net access. We found one only 50 metres from our hotel, which we used for a short while before heading off to Punakaiki.

Punakaiki is about 42km north of Greymouth and quite a nice coastal drive.
The coast was looking particularly rough and there were some interesting cloud formations, so we stopped a few times on the way for some photos. We got to Punakaiki and went on the loop walk which has been created for people to view the rock formations - Pancake Rocks. The rain was on and off, so we had to shelter a few times. The rocks there are amazing, literally like stacks of pancakes, with huge waves crashing below them. The 2nd half of the track was a bit more difficult, with steep stairs, which I managed to traverse with Neil's help.
We got back to the car soaked but invigorated.

The drive back to Greymouth was nice as the sun was starting to break through the clouds and the sea was still rough, so it made for some nice stormy photography.

We felt like Chinese for tea, and after looking inside the only chinese takeaway place in town, we decided against it - it looked feral. So we drove around looking for something else, but couldn't see much. Neil decided to get KFC and I spotted an Indian restaurant a few doors down, so I got that. Greymouth, and most of New Zealand we have noticed does not have many 'cuisine' type restaurants. Mostly they are steak houses and general type cuisine, so we are missing just being able to say - 'let's get greek'.

We took the take away back to our room and had an early night.

A few other NZ observations:
- One lane bridges! About 95% of them are only one lane - don't know why
- Their sour cream is different to ours - more yellow and buttery
- Most service stations are serviced, which is nice