Two West Coast Mining Towns

Catch-up

After our sobering and thoughtful visit to the Pike29 Memorial we carried on towards Greymouth, taking a side road to the old mining settlement of Blackball.

And although the streets around village's few shops and one of the pubs, were lined with vehicles, the streets were deserted of people. The only sign of occupancy were these two characters resting in the shade of an old cottage in the midst of a makeover. 

David dropped me off so I could take the necessary church photos and then drove around the block (the block nearly being the whole village) and pulled up outside the other pub in town and the one I wanted to check out- the 'famous in New Zealand', Blackball Hilton.....now known as the former Blackball Hilton because of a certain international hotel chain's pressure to change the name.

Next door I finally found a single person checking out the Blackball Museum of Working Class History including an exhibition of the 1908 miners strike, which at 10 weeks, is the longest strike in New Zealand. Blackball is also the birthplace of the New Zealand Labour Party.

The Blackball Hilton publican & his wife came out to front table to have a smoko break and we got talking. The town was empty of people but full of vehicles because of a very large funeral for a local identity which was happening at the other hotel in town. When he heard we'd just visited the memorial he said we'd have to come in and see the hotel's memorial to the Pike 29. The first thing he pointed out was the clock, it was fixed on the time of the blast.

He took great pains in pointing out that his wall was the first memorial to the Pike 29 and that the hotel was in fact where many of the families and rescuers stayed and met each day during the early attempts at rescue. There were also memorials and information on the other walls right through the hotel of other mine disasters and important events in the area's history. After thanking them for their hospitality, we continued our journey.

Our destination for the night, as previously mentioned was Jellyman Park near Greymouth. We'd set up camp and were relaxing in the warm late afternoon sun when I had a brainwave (David would say a brainfade)...it was a lovely evening and when I checked my tide app, I saw that sunset was at 8:09 and low tide was at 8:15pm. 

Perfect timing for another visit to the fabulous hidden coastline at Motukiekie, 15kms up the coast- low tide, rock formations, a West Coast sunset & hopefully the special orange starfish, that inhabit the rock pools at very low tide and which I'd failed to find on our previous visit (although we did manage to find a caveman). All that combined (not the caveman though) could make for an epic photo shoot.

I told David I'd be happy to go by myself, but I'd love him to come; as back up and to help me down the steep bank and ladder to the beach. Otherwise I'd have to walk in from a couple of kilometres away and I really didn't fancy finding my way back to the ute after dark. Of course how could he refuse!

We left a couple of hours before sunset, which was a little too early but we were ready to go, so we took a detour via Runanga, another old coal mining town on the West Coast. I wanted to take a photo of the historic 'Miners Hall' which is adorned with famous socialist slogans. British miners brought a strong tradition of industrial unionism to New Zealand, where it quickly established itself, especially on the West Coast.

This Historic Places Category 1 building will hopefully be restored eventually (click to enlarge)

Runanga is also very proud of their mining heritage, rugby league roots and their international players; this large display was on the side of one of the shops.

Unfortunately the Buffalo Butchery didn't stand the test of time. I remember when we were on the Coast many years ago and had a buffalo burger at a cafe out in the middle of nowhere somewhere near Punakaiki. The cafe was actually at a buffalo farm (these are water buffalo), poor things, watching their mates being turned into burgers. It too had disappeared when we travelled that area last year.

While I was taking photos David decided that we'd have 'Chicken 'n Chips' for dinner from the local (the one and only) shop. It was rather surreal eating dinner at a picnic table on a footpath in a deserted and slightly rundown town.

But the 'Chicken 'n Chips'  were very tasty (hey, anything's tasty when you don't have to cook dinner) and we did see a few locals, mainly young people coming in for their daily fix; a packet of fags.

We carried on up the coast and checked out Motukiekie from the beach where I was going to walk in from. Hmmm....the tide looked like it still had a way to go and the sun had disappeared behind a thick band of grey cloud. 

We drove back to our secret track and headed down to the beach, finding the ladder just as it was the last time. 

The rocks came into view at the last turn in the track....that tide still looks a little high and the waves are still rolling in. And the sun has definitely disappeared.  

We swung down the rope (middle right) onto the rocks at the base of the cliffs...

...and walked up the beach to the rock stacks where unfortunately the tide was just not going to go out far enough tonight. It still blocked the way around the last section and the starfish pools were still covered in water. Oh well, it was worth a shot but we decided it just wasn't going to happen tonight so headed off back to the rope.

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and found this juvenile spotted shag trying desperately to blend into the rock-face behind him. He was actually warming himself in the sun that had finally appeared for a few brief moments...

...but he quickly decided he needed to find an escape route...

"If I tip-toe quietly this way, she won't notice me"

Meanwhile David had disappeared down the beach...

And while I was taking that shot, Master Shag made a quick escape.

As did we; back up the rocks, up the rope, the ladder and through the bush, back to the ute and home again...

...just in time to catch the sun setting!!

Mapua to Greymouth

Real-time

As mentioned we left a sunny Mapua on Monday morning heading to the NZMCA Park at Murchison.

We had a farewell dinner with Paul & Amanda at Mapua's Sprig & Fern Tavern the night before and when we left to head home the temperature outside had dropped dramatically, it felt like snow somewhere. And there it was, a light spring dusting along the Richmond Range. No wonder it had been freezing overnight, down to 1 degree at one stage and very chilly when we got up in the morning. The diesel heater got a late season work out.

We stopped at Wakefield for lunch and then scouted the town for churches. And found a lovely surprise- the oldest church in the South Island, St Johns Church, built in 1846.

St Johns was located atop a small hill so David parked at the bottom and I walked up the road passing this ostentatious property with a weird bronze statue at the entrance, on the way. 

What's with that statue? I check with Mr Google and all was revealed. That is Richard Nixon making his famous 'V' 'peace gesture in front of a replica White House. Really? Yes really. The property- it is for sale- belongs to a controversial businessman whose runs an international publishing company, Haldeman, which offers advice to help people begin careers in the mining industry, start their own radio stations or engage in personal development. A bit of a an eclectic mix there and he obviously hasn't followed his own advice. Read the links for more information.

I had a quick walk through town taking a few photos of the older buildings. While I was lining up this building a young boy was jumping up and down, prancing back and forward in front of me, pulling funny faces and poses at the camera. Rather than tell him to push off, I asked him if he'd like his photo taken. 'Yes please!' he said, and grabbed his Halloween mask to put on. Then he moved out of my way so I could capture the building. Sometimes you've just got to engage with them.  

This shot made me smile, the boys are heading uphill and in the wrong direction to catch some waves. Wakefield is about 30kms from the coast. Perhaps they were heading to a favourite river to ride some rapids.

We leave Wakefield behind and continue up the valley and over Spooners Range, through some lovely countryside. The scenery is beautiful, with lush spring growth, dairy farms with paddocks full of fat cows and healthy calves, pine forests and native bush in every shade of green, along with many abandoned buildings, old cottages and old style homesteads. One day I need to do a slow road trip through here so I can capture all the abandoned buildings.The early settlers in this area must have been a God-fearing bunch as there are more old churches per square mile than I have seen anywhere in New Zealand.

The last photo stop before we reach Murchison is to take shots of St Georges Church in Motupiko, which was built in 1897 and is in need of some tender loving care before too much more of it is reclaimed by nature.

I'm always on the lookout for a church as we pass through small settlements, some with nothing more than a couple of houses on the side of the road. Often we're cruising along the highway and I suddenly spot a spire or a cross through the trees. I shout 'Church' (I'm sure I'll give David a heart-attack one day) and of course he can't just hit the brakes. Well he could but that would create a big mess- inside and out.

We then need to find a turning point and drive back over the last few kilometres until we come across the church again. Sometimes he'll drop me off because there is no pull-in. Then he'll head off up the road again to turn around or I walk(run) to wherever he's found a pull off spot. Locals must wonder what on earth we are doing, it's not as though we don't stand out on the road.

By mid afternoon we've arrived at the NZMCA Park in Murchison and have grabbed our favourite spot just inside the gate. We (that's the royal 'we') don't need to unhitch tonight as we'll be off again in the morning. This is our third visit to Murchison, our last stay was for six days so we have explored the area extensively and there's no need to move outside the park today. Though we were excited to see & hear a number of kea calling out as they flew overhead, something we hadn't seen before.

There were some beautiful rhododendrons flowering around the park boundary and in particular this one at the back of our van. The colour of  flowers in the shade was stunning... 

....while the flowers that were in the all-day sun were a pretty shade of subtle pink. I don't think its just Taranaki that has a grand display of Rhodos. From Nelson, down through Reefton and onto Greymouth, many home and council gardens have beautiful displays of the colourful plant at the moment.

Next morning it's decision time. Do we head east through Lewis Pass or west, back to the Coast to complete some unfinished business. The long range weather forecast for the West Coast is not good, it says rain for the next two weeks and after spending our last visit waiting 3 weeks for the rain to stop, we're reluctant to repeat the process. 

But then again, we really want to see the nesting Kotuku/White Herons at Whataroa and David would like to fish a couple of the lakes again so we decide to bite the bullet and try the Coast again. We head off through the upper Buller Gorge, passing familiar sites and places we'd stopped at on our previous visits. It's a great feeling knowing we can pick and choose where to go and when to stop on this, our third visit to the Coast. We turn off at Inangahua and onto a new road for us, heading towards Reefton.

Our next overnight stop is at the Reefton Racecourse where for the grand sum of $2 per person per night we have this wonderful site with great views, all to ourselves. 

Reefton is another great little town with a rich heritage including many historic buildings. David actually knew something about Reefton which I didn't, he'd heard an item on the radio awhile ago about John Bougen, NZ's most travelled man and a multi millionaire (Dress-Smart founder) who has adopted Reefton as his home town. 

John has been buying up properties and pouring dollars into beautifying the town and restoring buildings. He mows resident's lawns on his ride-on mower and NZ flags fly off most of the town's historic buildings and businesses, all courtesy of John Bougen. Although I think he's overlooked a property across the river at Rosstown (below right).

Aside from the 1860s gold rush which helped establish the busy mining town, Reefton was the first place to have a public supply of electricity and the first to switch on electric street lighting in the Southern Hemisphere. Reefton has a wild frontier feel about it's main street, without the cars you could quite imagine cowboys riding horses down the street. 

We had a double chuckle at David's expense with a couple of signs in Reefton. The first was the 'Fresh Fish' sign on the end of the building above. David went wandering off down the road looking for the fish shop, thinking it would be nice to have fish for dinner! He obviously didn't see the '100 metres upstream' underneath. The road ended at the river.

And then he spotted this sign on the local hotel and we decided it went quite nicely with his standard response to people who ask where we are going next. 'Ask me tomorrow' he always says.

We broke the budget at Reefton and forked out for another night at the racecourse. We wanted to explore the old gold mining ghost town of Waiuta before leaving. You'll have to wait for a separate blog on that visit and also another blog on our stops along the way to Greymouth. They both deserve their own post. 

From Reefton we headed to the freedom camping site at Jellyman Park in Greymouth. You'd probably have a hard time guessing why we're stopping in Greymouth again. We're having the ute serviced at the local Ford dealership. And although it wouldn't have mattered if we weren't in the area, because we are David was keen to use the same workshop that serviced the ute 18 months ago and especially the same workshop manager who we met and enjoyed his company while camping at Lake Kaniere, the Easter before last.

We've stayed at Jellyman Park before and what a difference there has been to the coastline since then. There was a large storm a few months ago and up to 3 metres was eroded off the edge of the park. Not only that but the massive amount of driftwood had also disappeared (although I suspect that gets washed away on a regular basis). 

Jellyman Park, May 2015

Since leaving Murchison we've only have a few squally rain showers overnight and one massive but short lived thunderstorm this morning. We're quietly keeping our fingers crossed that the forecasters are wrong. West Coast sunsets are spectacular when it isn't raining.

The Restless Sea- Greymouth

We headed north to Greymouth after leaving the NZMCA Park at Hokitika. Hokitika is as far south as we travelled on this visit to the West Coast, we’re leaving the bottom half for another time when hopefully, the rain won’t be so persistent. This is just as well, as after arriving in Christchurch this week, the West Coast had some atrocious weather with major flooding and road washouts. The locals must be seriously getting fed up with so much rain.

The road journey for us is just as interesting as the destinations we end up at, our legal speed limit is 90kph but we mostly cruise around 75kph which gives us ample opportunity to see the countryside. After all we are in no hurry-I can hear you cursing from here- and this is from a former speed freak who never let anyone pass her on the Napier-Taupo Road. But David is a very conscientious driver and we never hold up another vehicle, we are forever pulling over to let faster traffic through. This benefits us both; David doesn’t get stressed with traffic pushing us along and I get to take photos from the cab or see information signs well in advance, and we both can enjoy the passing scenery. I think this attitude has helped us on our travels over the last 20 months as we have never been subjected to any type of road rage and nearly every passing vehicle thanks us in one way or another by tooting, waving or flicking their lights.

We didn’t need any encouragement from a pilot vehicle to pull off the road when we saw this huge silo(thing) approaching us as we crossed a one way bridge.

We can assume the silo didn’t pass through the Taramakau road and rail bridge just up the road. If it didn’t come over Arthurs Pass(highly unlikely) it must have taken the back roads as there’s only one highway between Greymouth and Hokitika. You’ll remember the bike rider sign from a previous blog post; this is approaching the bridge from the other direction. David keeps a close eye on his side while I’m meant to be keeping an eye on my side.

Our Greymouth destination is Jellyman Park, a large gravel & pot-hole ridden carpark on the edge of the a bay in Cobden where freedom camping is allowed…..for 3 nights only as I was to find out. We were in Greymouth to have the Ford Ranger serviced, our neighbour who was camping behind us at Lake Kaniere over Easter, turned out to be the Ford service manager in Greymouth and as the ute was due for its 30,000km service David felt there was no better place to have it done. And especially after Roger mentioned a few quirks he was aware of and could fix.

North Beach is a typical rugged West Coast beach littered with so much driftwood it’s hard to imagine where it all comes from (although having seen all the cyclone windfall I have an idea). There’s a wall of wood higher than me at the south end of the beach. I have a fantastic view out the window (bottom left) as I type my blogs, I think this is the closest we’ve been to incoming waves.

The ute was booked in for Monday and as we arrived on Friday night we had the whole weekend ahead of us. We were entertained by a passing parade of locals both days. Saturday morning we were woken early by the whirring of  weed-eaters, on the sports field bank opposite us a dozen or so young men in bright orange safety vests, safety glasses and ear muffs were working; local community service ‘volunteers’. They stayed all day and I must say they worked their butts off, the spectator bank around the sports field was spick 'n span ready for the new rugby season.

I say we were woken early but that’s not quite right, I was woken earlier at 5:30am by a vehicle doing a slow drive by. I looked out the window to see an old guy in an orange vest climb out of his car carrying a clip-board. He proceeded to right out a ticket and attach it to the non CSC compliant sleeper car parked along from us (CSC - certified self-containment). He then added another one to the vehicle ahead of us. Hmmm…great to see a freedom camping spot policed. He came by each morning we were there.

Sunday morning I was getting breakfast when I heard a commotion approaching us, when I looked outside there were people and dogs galore walking by. A doggy play date!

They walked to the end of the carpark where the high tide cut them off from walking any further up the beach. They then turned around and returned along the beach with most of the dogs off their leads enjoying the surf and chasing each other. Unusually, there were three St Bernards amongst them....and one was definitely not CSC.

The neighbours in front of us, in their Juicy hire motorhome, were a French couple and their two young children. They spent most of the day on Saturday building a very elaborate tepee on the beach. The children had their lunch inside it, sitting on a log at the table Dad had made from an old piece of plywood that was found amongst the wood on the beach. The mother served the children through the window at the back. Such wonderful memories for them all although I’m not so sure the children will remember them.

Watching them, I kept getting anxious as the tots were fishing bits of wood out of the pool that was forming nearby as the tide came in. One rouge wave and they’d be in trouble- as we've seen, West Coast waves leave no sand when the tide comes in. The father told David he was used to the ocean but we had to tell them New Zealand’s sea was a lot different than what he would have experienced, and especially on the West Coast.

Long after the children (and his wife) had lost interest in building the tepee, the husband soldered on, adding more and more pieces of driftwood to the structure, slowly filling in all the gaps until he had the most elaborate drift wood tepee I have ever seen. Later in the day he returned from up the beach with a flax woven door to add to it! It even has a small wooden door handle tied to the flax, which he must have added later as it's not in the top photo.

The beach is just north of the Grey River breakwater (known as the Cobden tip head). This was the pile of driftwood at the end of the beach and in the curve just before the breakwater. I walked to the tip-head a couple of times although I had to take the walkway around the back way because there was no way past this pile at high tide.

An off-shore breeze was creating a lot of sea-spray and haze along the beach and over the hills behind. At least all the rain we’ve been having was helping in washing the salt off the vehicles.

We’d heard that a spring tide was due on Sunday and what with the wind, the swell and the now the higher than usual tide there was a lot of people calling in at the beach and along the tip head to check out the waves. A few surfers tried their luck but there mustn’t have been any good breaks as they only lasted a few waves.

The Greymouth River Bar is extremely dangerous to cross, 45 boats have been wrecked over the years and 17 people have lost their lives as boats have tried to enter and exit the river. I had seen a few fishing boats coming and going while out walking but missed shooting the most scary entry. I was too far away to catch it surfing in and crashing down a huge wave on it’s side. I did catch this one on my next visit although it wasn’t quite as hairy a ride.

The little bay below is on the inside of the tip head, the river on the far side. The left hand picture was taken on Saturday before the spring tide. The two on the right were taken on Sunday at high tide and with huge waves rolling in. Look at that flotsam in the breakers, and another large pile of diftwood on the beach behind. Over the weekend there were many people, both at our beach and here in the bay collecting firewood in bags, trailers and filling their car boots.

There were also a number of photographers at both the Blaketown (south breakwater) & Cobden tip-heads shooting (and escaping from) the crashing waves.

Back at the van, the spring tide was pushing the waves in very close. Even the tepee had wet feet. It was a little unsettling to hear the swish and rumble of waves later in the night when the next high tide arrived, knowing that it was just out the window in the darkness. I’m sure had there been a storm at the same time as the spring tide, the waves would have crashed over the carpark.

Later in the afternoon I heard a motorbike outside the van. When I looked outside I saw a guy on a trike (as ancient as he was). This was the same guy I had seen in an orange vest at 5:30am in the morning. He came over to talk and in a round about way mentioned freedom camping was only allowed for 3 nights at Jellyman Park (and only 10 in any calendar month)- he gave me a brochure with all the rules. Sunday was our third night and because the ute was going to be in at Ford for most of Monday we had thought we’d stay Monday night too. We could have moved down the road to another freedom camping area but we didn’t feel like doing that late in the afternoon especially when the rain set in on Sunday night. I turned on my charm and mentioned all the money we were spending in Greymouth- groceries, diesel, gas bottle, vehicle service (plus a brake repair on the van & holiday park as it turned out).

‘Oh don’t worry’ he said, ‘we’re not that strict on it out of season’. Hmmm…..oh well, we’ll chance it I thought. But believe me, I was closely watching him when he did his drive through at 5:30am Tuesday morning. I know he is doing a good job and it’s one of the few areas that police their freedom camping sites but sometimes these pro-freedom camping towns have more rules in place than the ones that aren’t.

And then for my troubles I got his life story for the next half hour. He lived just down the road and came to the park at least three times a day, more over summer. He collects wood from the beach, but not just any wood, he had an eye for the good stuff- I can’t remember what he does with it, I must have tuned out by then. Earlier he saw a log down below us that had washed in overnight so he raced back home and had come back with his trusty trailer & chainsaw to salvage it. He said if he hadn’t have got it straight away, some other bugger would have got in before him.

I left him to it and saw him later riding off with the trailer full of wood sticking out every which way.

And that was our weekend of entertainment in Greymouth.

Roger at Ford did a magic job on the ute; we were topped up with fuel, food and water, tanks were empty and we were ready to head to Lake Brunner when the brake computer for the van decided to throw a hissy fit. Luckily Roger had the contacts and we got in touch with a good auto electrician and we were able to get the parts sent down overnight for him to repair it. Because it was raining heavily and we’d already over-stayed our welcome at Jellyman Park we decided to stop overnight at the Top10 Holiday Park, a huge campground in a lovely position right on the beach, south of the town. It was great to be able to do the laundry, have a long hot shower and top all the batteries up before heading to the lake.

I’m not sure what happened to the ‘I’ll let the photos do the talking’……