New Zealand Adventure Day 2- Hanmer Springs to Greymouth

Monday morning in Hanmer was beautiful- sunny and warm. We tried (again, in vain) to get our gas cooker working (camping is a learning process) before Sarah cooked porridge in the kitchen. We walked to the hot springs and spent three hours relaxing in pools of varying degrees and sulfer-y smells. After repeating dinner from the night before with a fish n' chip lunch (apparently it's a kiwi staple) we hit the road again bound for Greymouth on the west coast. The 7 highway took us parallel to the Grey river, which provided many AMAZING photo opportunities (you'll have to get used to me going on about the scenery) and our first view of the Southern Alps. Our arrival in Greymouth was uneventful- it surprised us as a bit of a ghost town. We found out later it was a bank holiday, but still- the place was deserted. Nothing open, no people on the streets- it seemed the only life was found in 'Countdown', which is Woolworths, but with a worse name. We decided to camp up in a place called Rapahoe- it was right on the beach and so beautiful! We were able to again watch the sunset, this time over the Tasman Sea, and count the stars from the moon roof in our campervan, whom we dubbed 'Murray'. We had also figured out the gas cooker thing (it needed matches, they didn't give them to us, not our fault! :D ) so we toasted marshmallows on the cooker with our new friend Jade the dog. Even getting to the showers was an adventure, we got to run through a little forest path complete with fairy lights! It was so much fun!



Sarah cooking on the back of Murray



The sunset view from our campsite- beautiful!



Oh no I burned my marshmallow!