shrove tuesday...

After all the excitement of the seal we upped sticks and headed for the west coast. We had a monster drive of 300+ km to a town called greymouth, which looked to be the biggest town on the west coast. On the way we had a quick stop at Punekai (pronounced poo-na-cake-ee) to see the pancake rocks. These are rocks that have been pounded together and layered over time to look like pancakes. The sea has then carved into the rocks to create a series of blow holes (much like a whales) that the sea spurts out of when it comes rushing in at high tide. We weren't there quite at high tide, but it was still pretty cool.

We arrived at Greymouth at night, and left the next morning after a quick breeze around the town. NZ towns can be a bit odd, unless your looking to buy some 80s style ear-rings and a knitting set (its funny what you'll find in a small town). Anyhow, Alexia furnished herself with a new digi camera and did some haggling Dell Boy would be proud of to get the price down a bit further.

After our night in Greymouth we took a short drive south to Hokitika, Hokey to the locals. Here we spent two nights, which was a real treat for us as usually every night is in a new place We even managed a trip to the beach.

We took advantage of our rest day to hire two bikes and cycle 25 km to a lake and back, and had a well earnt beer afterwards (we've even found a beer lex likes to drink!). Whilst in the pub we discoverd a NZ traditional drink, Coke and raspberry. Now this may sound a little dodgy, but we both highly recommend it, all you need is a couple of dashes of raspberry cordial in a fat coke. Yummy.

Next stop, the Glaciers...