Thursday, March 11, 2010
Deb is blogging while Steve drives east on highway 7. The bush here is a bit different than other areas we have travelled. Still some ferns but more beech trees and lots of shrubs and conifers with tree-covered mountains. Evening traffic here is virtually non-existent.
This morning we headed to Franz Josef to get breakfast and made a stop to pick up a few souvenirs. We decided since it was overcast and we had seen Fox Glacier yesterday we would press on. We were happy that the forecasted rin for today came during the night instead. We travelled up the West coast and then cut over to the East coast. Decided to stop at Ross which is an old gold mining town. There was a short walk showing the history of the Ross Gold Mining Company. It was amazing what they did to the land back then with no regards to the impact on the ecology of the area. There is still gold in them there hills, about 300 million worth but probably hard to get to because nothing is going on. So Deb saw this billy goat laying in front of a garage and of course was a perfect picture. There was a jadesmith next door so we popped into see his work and have a chat. He was an interesting kiwi and very talented.
Our next stop was Hokitika, which is known for their jade work. We visited several shops and saw a decorative piece for $72,000. We stopped at a glassblower and watched them create a penguin. There was a glass chess set made of penguins/
We drove on and kept trying to get over to the beach. Finally we found an access road to Cameron’s Beach, the home of blue penguins. We made sandwiches and walked the beach. The surf was amazing but no penguins at that time of day.
It is 6:15 pm and we are driving east and have gone through farm country, caribou, beef, dairy, , alpaca, sheep.... It is now started to rains we travel through another mountain pass. Today has seen the greatest number of twist and turns requiring Steve to focus on the road. We have traveled over countless one lane bridges and through Lewis Pass.
Recommendation for anyone who does this type of trip: bring music as there is no radio stations in the mountains. Our car is Nissan Sunny with a tape player only. It does force you to talk to one another : ).
We still are not sure where we will lay our head tonight. Always an adventure!
We made it Hammer Springs and found lodging at a Bella Vista Motel. There are hot springs here so we will see how the weather is in the morning and may check them out. Our host here told us about a shortcut to Kaikoura and he said he could book us ahead there and receive a 10% discount so we are considering it since we may stay two nights there. Had dinner at a local pub. I had a chicken burger and Steve had a double burger. It was huge and they put sliced beets, caramelized onions (which they call fried onion rings), lettuce, tomato on a huge bun.
Good night!
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