Greymouth, Pt Elizabeth
St. Arnaud was really good to us, I must say. Wonderful region, and the town itself is undeveloped in a nice way. Just one word of warning: Stay away, stay the fuck away, from „Dine Hard“. The worst food I’ve ever seen. Disgusting. The Alpine Lodge, on the other hand, much better food.
Or take the 20k drive East on the road to Blenheim and stop by the two food“trucks“ in the middle of nowhere in the Wairua Valley – good stuff, good ice cream, too.
After four days, we were off to Greymouth via Reefton. The real-fruit ice cream in Murchison is nothing to write home about, so skip that one. In Reefton, we stopped briefly to visit my bros at the „Bearded Miners„, then headed further West. First stop: Southern breakwater in Greymouth, were there’s very nice stroopwaffles and rich hot chocolate (made from real chocolate, not powder) to be had at the „Lifeboat“.
Near Punakaiki, we did a nice loop track, starting at the Pororari River carpark, via Bullock Creek, Inland Pack Track, and then returning via the Pororari River. Beautiful, so many different sceneries. Plus a pancake stack at the Pancake Rocks Cafe at the end! đ And nearly no sandflies, very peaceful. Except for the Pororari River track, we didn’t meet a soul.
(In Germany, a track called „Inland Pack Track“ would be a scenic tour of Dresden. )
Now, off to the Croesus track!