Sixth NZ post: the West Coast (Greymouth and Punakaiki)

I've started writing this with my second glass of wine in the Koru Lounge in Christchurch - not great wines, but sheesh, we're not going hungry in this place. Impressive spread including cheeses, salads, breads, mussels, cake slices, wines, coffee. I could vacation here at Christchurch Airport!

We'll very much miss the West Coast, and we'll look back at the photos from the past few days and wish we'd stayed longer. I'll skip over the drive through Arthur's Pass to Greymouth a couple of days back and post on that when I get today's return drive photos all sorted. Monday it was grey but impressive. Today was sunny and ridiculously stunning. 300 km of driving took us 6 hours. Yes, lots of photos to come, and not of food either!

Greymouth, despite its name, was not grey when we arrived. We had a bit of trouble finding the B&B (which we recommend!), but eventually made it there. Once checked in to our room and familiar with the surroundings,



we headed into the town to look around (Allison, have you heard the term "trundlers" before? It struck me as funny). In the end, we found ourselves walking along the beach by the little airfield. The water was not a bad temperature, and there was no end of handsome rocks to collect.









No food photos from our dinner that night. We arranged to dine with the B&B owners, Susan and Robert, and had a lively dinner with lots of wine, a tender lamb roast, and plenty of wide-ranging conversation. Wonderful food for being honestly served up (and very well cooked in any case) and accompanied with lots of chat. We went to bed very well fed.

Yesterday we skipped breakfast. Given our big meal the night before, we couldn't face eating more food. What we could do, though, was get in the car and drive north on the scenic coastal highway


to see the pancake rock formations at Punakaiki. High tide was set for 8 that morning, and we were told that was the best time to see blowholes. Alas, we were an hour late, and while we saw the rocks, we saw no blowhole action. (No dirty comments from you, Jeph!) We did, however, time our arrival with the heaviest rain of the morning. Of course!










From what others have told us, there is a line just south of Greymouth that divides wet and miserable from warm and sunny. Our luck, but the rocks were fine nonetheless. As we returned south, we left the rain and instead found a terrific beach for picking up still more stones.

Second NZ post: arriving in Christchurch

Whatever your deity, may he/she/it/they be praised! Our B&B - the Infinity Eden Lodge - outside of Greymouth not only has dramatic views of the Tasman Sea, but it also has wireless Internet! FREE! Freakin' A, man!

Alright, I'll settle down. And with a bottle of a sparkling white from Nelson opened and being enjoyed, that's not too difficult. Back to the early days in New Zealand, then, shall we?

If I go right back to the start, I'd have to talk about the flights. And then I'd have to moan about the delay in Chicago, the understaffing of the Air NZ desk in LA with the resulting tight connection, and the lengthy wait for bags in Auckland, again resulting in a tight connection. Eh, it happens. And anyway, we made it here, right? So focus on the good. As mentioned, Air New Zealand Business Class was luxurious. Seats that fold out into flat beds with comforters and pillows provided? Dozens of movies and television shows on demand? No brainer. I watched The Queen and Volver, and I have my eye on a few other fun movies for the way back. Oh, and Jeph? I caught up on Heroes, so spoil away in your blog or by e-mail. Ray Ray, if you read this, you will get a kick out of knowing I also got to watch the makeover episode of ANTM from the season with Jade! What a hoot! Tasty food as well, by the way.

We checked in to our hotel in Christchurch late on Friday morning and soon set off walking. The hotel was nice, kind of interesting. Slightly gay. Slightly shopworn. In a modest section of town but within easy walking distance of everything. I kind of liked it, though if I were truly objective, I'd say it wasn't the best. Still, we did benefit from the fragrance of the restaurant dinners wafting up into our bathroom. We had lots of room as well. Points off for being able to hear the snorer in the adjacent room. Points added for the outstanding braised pork belly we both dined on last night. FXK, you would have liked it muchly as well - so tender, and a satisfying portion.

Though it was kind of scattered cloud when we arrived in Christchurch (and Auckland, where we changed planes, was quite sunny), the blue skies disappeared through the afternoon. Happily for us, the daytime temperature was comfortable. We wandered around the Cathedral Plaza, ate a lunch of Moroccan chicken at The Boulevard restaurant on Oxford Terrace, and poked about in the Arts Centre. How fatigued were we? Fatigued - and loopy - enough to go on a tour/demo of fudgemaking.

You know, it was kind of neat. I could have done with a little less jokey selling of the products because I was genuinely interested in the fudge itself. And it was fascinating to see the process through. Also, we got to taste a heck of a lot of fudge. A bit too much fudge. A salt lick was what I needed after that!

On the way home we poked about in the Arts Centre studios and shops some more, and we saw what we think may be one of the best modern buildings we've seen in some time: the Christchurch Art Gallery. Though we went inside, we only wanted to look at the design of the building, not see the exhibits. Impressive and beautiful, especially with the sky reflected in it.

I wish I had a bunch of photos from our evening activity to share. Last summer, a librarian from Lincoln University outside of Christchurch came to visit my library one morning. It was good to make that connection, and nice to run into her again at ALA Annual in New Orleans. I contacted Lyndsay before our trip, and she invited us to dinenr on our first night. Even more fun, what she took us to (and I'm sorry her husband couldn't join us) was the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. There we enjoyed a Maori interpretive show (and Lyndsay got called up to join a line of women for one part of it involving a traditional Maori toy - that was quite funny, really, and I hope she thought so), a buffet dinner, and then a trip into a birdhouse when it was darker so that we could see kiwis. Real live kiwis. The first time I saw one of their ivory bills flash in the dim light, I thought it was a tongue, like on an anteater. Fascinatingly ugly little birds, and I thought it a real treat that we got to see some.

And then it was home and soon to bed. We were tired, and not unreasonably so!