West Coast Sunset

A good West Coast sunset is a sight to behold.

The West Coast is famous for it’s stunning, fiery sunsets and one of the best places to watch the brilliant golden globe sink into the Tasman Sea is on the beach at Hokitika. They even have a special place for visitors to gather and watch; Sunset Point is on the beach beside the Hokitika River mouth. There’s a lookout platform which you can climb to get a better vantage point. I could see across the river to Sunset Point from the van and every night as sunset approached, dozens of cars and motorhomes arrived and the platform filled with people jockeying for a good view.

I didn’t need to mix it with the plebs though, I had my own light show out our backdoor (the only door) parked at the NZMCA Park on the south bank of the river.

The best sunsets are when there is cloud in the sky, the beautiful colours are reflected off them.

The extraordinary sunsets though, are when there’s a thin layer of cloud across the sky similar to the cloud in this photo I took as I crossed the bridge into town.

Unfortunately on that day, having walked into town and back again I decided not to return to catch the sunset behind the ‘Hokitika’ driftwood sign- bad move Shellie, it was the best sunset we had seen since being on the Coast. Instead I stood on the deck of the NZMCA clubroom and shot it from there. David had driven into town to pick up supplies and raced home to tell me what an awesome sight it was as he crossed the bridge, the colours were reflected off the river as well as the cloud. Another opportunity missed.

It seemed that by the time I decided I must get into town to get the sunset & the sign before we left Hokitika, I’d missed out altogether, the sunsets were nowhere near as beautiful as the ones I’d seen from the Park.

Photography rules suggest that you should have something of interest in your sunset shot, something that acts as a silhouette against the sunset. I say bugger the rules, I only had a few distant trees on the beach front to play with.

The real show starts once the sun disappears below the horizon, this is when the fiery golds and reds come out to play.

And finally, a last one taken as I prepared dinner, looking out the kitchen window through the hedge behind the van. What a view and what stunning colours!

Well, as you’ve probably gathered we’ve still got internet access. We're wallowing in gigabytes.

We’re holed up at Jacksons (how many know where that is?) where we’ve had torrential rain for over 24hrs- in fact we've now had rain for 4 days solid. We're parked up at Jacksons Retreat, a holiday park where we have power, laundry, a luxury amenity block and the internet, all in beautiful surroundings. IKS (Internet Kiosk Specialist) supply wifi internet at the park and for $5 I have 10gb to use within 24hrs, which might not sound like much to you out there who have a landline and mega gigabytes but for me who pays $49 for 3gb it like winning the jackpot. The trouble is I still have to sleep at some stage too!

We’re waiting for a clear day before we cross Arthurs Pass (it sounds like we're about to make an ascent on a mountain) but I'd like to at least see some of the scenery on the way. And especially now that I've spotted snow on the mountains nearby- which wasn't there yesterday. The temperature is dropping fast. And it's still raining off and on.....mainly on.