Saturday, March 11 - Greymouth to Nelson

Greymouth to Nelson - 309 km driving

We have a leisurely morning at the campsite - our first stop is only about an hour away at 11 am so we have a nice sleep-in and enjoy a relaxed breakfast of bacon and eggs before heading out. We hit the road in time to make it to the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks at high tide. The pancake rocks are amazing layered formations of rock that jut out of the ocean, and at high tide the water booms and sprays through blowholes and caverns in an amazingly impressive way. We explore the nature trail and enjoy the sights and sounds of this natural wonder.

Water wheel and stamping battery

One of the places on our original planning wish-list had been Shantytown - a reconstructed gold rush town  just south of Greymouth - but because of the packed day we had yesterday and the way the rest of our itinerary looked like it was going to play out, we had to skip it. We still want to explore the west coast’s gold mining heritage so we make a stop at the smaller but still wonderful Mitchells Gully, a lovely little museum built around an abandoned gold mining operation. We have a great time following the old trolley tracks through the woods and seeing all the old mining equipment, including the original water wheel and stamping battery. We even have a chance to pan for gold ourselves, and we find a few flakes! Some of the old mining tunnels have glow-worms in them - our first encounter with an amazing creature that we’ll get to know better later on. We end our visit with Erik gleefully chasing the resident chickens through the parking lot.

There's gold in that thar... water trough!

Through the tunnels, in search of glow-worms

After the gold mine we press on to Nelson, where we’re booked for the night at the Tahuna Beach campsite. Once Harvey is installed at the campground we decide to give him a rest and take a cab into town for dinner. We decide to treat ourselves to something a little fancy at Ford’s, which has a nice laid-back atmosphere and upscale contemporary NZ cuisine. The calamari is once again excellent and I have probably the best pork belly I’ve ever had anywhere. We head back to the campsite where unfortunately some of our neighbours are partying it up quite loudly (bagpipes?!?!?) in spite of the torrential rain. Not the quietest night we’ve had but we still manage to get a decent rest in preparation for the next day’s adventures.