Today started well and continued to get better. The sun was shining as we got up and continued to do so all day. It had been a cool night but nowhere near as cold as the night at Punakaiki. We did all our chores after breakfast and then set off on our exploration.
When we had arrived at the site the night before the proprietress had strongly recommended that we should visit the Hokitika Gorge where the Hokitika River squeezes itself out of the mountains on its way down to the coast to give the town its name. It was a very interesting drive along an enlarged grid of roads where you drove for at least a mile in a perfectly straight line and then turned 90 degrees for the next mile long straight. We guessed that this area had only been measured out comparatively recently and so the road system had been laid out rather than evolved.
The valley floor is very level and the mountains seemed to just appear out of the valley
without the need for foothills; they not only seemed to be that way from a distance, they were actually like that when we reached them. The car park for the short walk to the swingbridge across the gorge must have been at least three kilometers/two miles from the nearest habitation and some 35 kilometers/20 miles from the town. There was a short walk, through what we felt was very ancient forest, to the first viewing platform and then another five minutes downhill to the swingbridge.
Although the lady at the campsite had told us the water would be the same colour as Sue's t shirt we were amazed to look down the tranquil gorge and see it full of milky, turquoise blue water, surging along to reach the valley.
Whilst we were walking back we saw a small bird flitting amongst the trees in very close proximity to the path and, indeed, to us. Despite our best efforts we couldn't manage to get a photo. It was about the size of a sparrow but with a beautiful fanned tail. This was not used in flight as such but appeared to come into use when moving amongst the leaves and branches of the trees. The fanned tail, when open, was very light coloured, almost white in fact. It seemed to be extremely busy and we watched it for a short while; its speed of movement could be followed with the naked eye but was beyond either of our camera skills!
We drove from the gorge, round Mt. Harry (family take note here), to Lake Kaniere. We even managed to cross the Styx River on the way but no-one asked for payment! The road eventually deteriorated from a tarmac surface to an unmade, loose gravel surface which led us up from the valley. As you will appreciate we did not see much other traffic on this particular road. We stopped to admire Dorothy Falls
before finding a stopping place literally at the edge of the lake to have our lunch. We have to say we saw another of the fantailed birds at the Dorothy Falls stop and, again, attempted to take a photograph. We are attaching the best (!?!) of them.
(Can you spot him/her?)
We had great fun sitting outside in the sun eating and watching a small group of ducks go about their normal business just in front of us at the edge of the lake.
It was nice to see this happening without the ducks coming and scavenging for food from us. While we sat the wind changed and we could see white horses on the lake and hear small waves breaking on the lake shore. We were sat where a small stream entered the lake but you could see from the contours in the lake bed that at times significant volumes of water would come down the mountainside behind us, bringing rocks and soil with it to deposit in the lake. Another thing that has surprised us is how far up the mountainsides the forest goes; on smaller mountains it appears to go right to the top.
We completed our drive round the lake by talking a short walk into part of the forest that surrounds the water and, indeed, grows right down to the waters edge.
The foliage includes phormiums that grow to significant sizes with their roots almost in the water. Horticulturalists among you will know that when such plants grow in the U.K. they like drier conditions. We put it down to the mildness of the climate, so the plants have no fear of frozen roots. Despite the closeness to the Southern Alps, no snow falls here. The other thing we noticed was the amazing number of ferns growing at the pathsides, not just tree ferns but many others.
We feel we have had a really satisfying day today, doing what we would like to do more of the next time we come. We seem to have stayed on the tried and tested routes on our journey through New Zealand, seeing many wonderful things (none of which we would have missed) but rather feel we have not seen a lot of the real New Zealand, which is out there as we discovered today. The parts that are not necessarily on the tourist maps.
We have come to a different camp site for tonight, still in Hokitika, closer to the beach, so Sue can have her coastal fix for the day, walking on the beach at sunset. Fortunately it also has wi-fi so this entry should be with you by the time we get to bed tonight.
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