Today is Waitangi Day, which commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, where the Maori were pretty much screwed by the Europeans. Happy Waitangi Day!
I woke up to find my chocolate milk and last piece of pizza had been stolen out of the disgusting kitchen overnight. Grr. We got underway at 9 and drove towards Greymouth. About thirty minutes in, while stopped to drop off Steve's son's helmet, we realized that we had left all out breakfast stuff and our cooler behind at Fern Lodge. The last people to eat breakfast had not brought the box back to the van. We decided not to go back for it and continued on as going back would have added an hour to the journey. We headed on through New Zealand's second largest national park, Kahurangi Park. It's all native forest and is overwhelmingly gorgeous. After a while of admiring the scenery I again fell asleep, waking when we stopped for a swim break. Well, it was supposed to be a swim break, but the bridge was way too high to jump off of, and it was virtually impossible to climb down the banks to the river. It became a scenic photo opportunity break instead, and Steve met some guys who were on their way to the starting line to compete in the Speights Coast-to-Coast race, which is a one-day triathlon of running, cycling, and kayaking from the west coast to the east coast of the South Island. Sounds grueling - I'd love to see it on TV.
We dropped Fran, Joe, Steve, Jess, Ronnie, and Norrie of at "On yer bike" for some 4-wheeling and the rest of us headed into town. We went to the Jade Boulder Trail - a greenstone museum. Well, it was actually a very large giftshop and cafeteria, along with a nice little museum, and two glassed in carving rooms.
No one was carving today, probably because of the holiday. By the way, when we stopped earlier of lunch we found out that because of the holiday the restaurant was adding on a 15% surcharge.
After the jade place, we headed out to the grocery store, and I peeled off the go to the "Warehouse" in hopes of cheap books, as I am running low. I found three I actually already wanted to read for $5 each, so I was happy.
After all the shopping (we're doing a communal dinner tonight) we headed 40 minutes north to Punakaiki to a retreat nestled in the rainforest called Te Nikau. It's gorgeous - little cabins placed throughout the forest. Susan, Andrea, and I are in Rata, along with some Swiss couples, a Japanese guy, an American woman, and an English girl named Hannah who's about to head over to Canada for three months working on organic farms across the country with the WWOOF program. We're upstairs in a loft area with six mattresses on the floor - surprisingly comfortable.
We headed down to the cabin with the most of the group in it to begin cooking dinner - the kitchens here are lovely. We made salad and burgers and sausages. After dinner we headed out for the beach. It's too dangerous to swim there, but it's the most amazing beach I've ever seen.
It's all very small rounded pebbles which feel really neat, and the rock formations and waves crashing and sunset all made it so beautiful.
We watched the sunset from the beach and then walked back up to the retreat. We missed the turnoff of the shortcut on the way back and ended up taking the long way, which is called the Truman Track - a native bush walk. It was gorgeous (I'm running out of superlatives).
Susan and I relaxed in th upstairs lounge with Hannah, and Andrea was as happy as a clam chatting in German with the Swiss downstairs. So far this in my favourite place that we've stayed by far.
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