Goldmines and Glow-worms

Well we had a lovely day travelling around yesterday. After our last little stop, we were on the outskirts of Westport; we went in to the town but it was a bit like a 1940's holiday camp...a bit wierd!!! All we did was fill up with petrol and leave, heading down the coast to Greymouth, our ultimate destination for the day. On the way we saw signs for a seal colony at the delightfully named 'Cape Foulwind'...well we've never seen a seal not in a zoo, so off we went. Awwww, I'm so glad we did, there were HUNDREDS of little baby seals, flipping about in the water and on the rocks in a secluded cove that you got to by walking along a ledge high above the water. It was great as we were near enough to see them but far away enough that you didn't disturb them!

After the seals we were on a high, so we headed on down the coast and then stopped at the NEXT tourist attraction, Pancake Rocks and (apologies for the spelling again) Punakaki Blow Holes. This is a natural limestone formation which, at certain tides, causes water to blow up through the hols worn in the rocks. Again it was a spectatcular coastal walk, very well maintained path and viewing galleries. Unfortunately the holes weren't blowing!!! But we have some lovely picccies anyway!

Further down on the coast we hit Greymouth and armed with our MOTELs guide, we decided to try our luck at the Coleraine guesthouse. Unfortunately, every singel motel in Greymouth seemed to have no vacancies. As the next day we were planning to be driving over Arthur's Pass, a scary windy road thru the mountains back to Christchurch, we didn't really want to set off over the pass at a late stage in the day and risk losing the light, so we started up the pass road and then stopped at the 1st sign of civilisation we could find. This ended up being a small 'town' called KUMARA - population 450!

The Kumara Motel was run by Lionel, the man who also ran the post office, cafe, chippy and local store (actually all the one building!). We checked out the room and for $65 you couldn't really go wrong, so we took the room.
"Have you ever seen a glow worm?" Lionel said, apropos of nothing. "No" we replied. "Right then" he said "I'll pick you up when I've shut the shop, and we can go and look at them in the old gold mines"! Not an offer you get every day, we thought. So at 8pm, armed with my torch and a sharp knife in case he was going to rob and kill us, off we went to the gold mines.
We were concentrating on not slipping on the mossy track that he lead us down and so didn't really pay too much attention to the surroundings, until he switched off the torch.

WOW!

I wish we could have got a photograph. We were in a grotto, a bank of mossy ground under the roots of a huge tree, and all round us were little lights glinting brightly in the dark. Blue green twinkles like the milky way.
We then went into the gold mine (I gripped the knife tightly) but it was only to show us the 'cave wetter' spiders! In the cave Lionel said it was the glow-worms noses that glowed, but back in the pub afterwards the barmaid tols us it was their pooh! Good job I didn't find that out in the cave, as a couple landed in my hair, and then Lionel's torch gave out! Believe me I had my hand on the knife at that point!!!!

OK well we're in Arthur's Pass Village right now and it's Saturday 10am, half way home to Christchurch. Half an hour's internet access has bought a longer posting for today! More from back at Leif's when we get home!

L&D xxxxx