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| Gentle Annie's Beach Campground, north of Westport. |
While waiting for engine bits to come from England, we busted out,
rented a little van and did a little road trip in the Northern part of
the South Island.
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| We drove SW from Nelson out to Westport, then up to Karamea and back south to Greymouth, then headed inland via Reefton and over the Lewis Pass, through Hanmer Springs and popped out on the East Coast at Kaikoura, then looped back to Neslon via Plenheim and Picton. | | | | | | | |
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| Cape Foulwind, named by Captain Cook on a bad day. |
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| Gentle Annie Beach, West Coast |
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| Naughtily Feeding the Wekas, Kahurangi Park |
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| Karst landscape at Oparara, Kahurangi Park near Karamea |
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| Not toxic, just tannins in the waterways at Oparara |
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| Don't know what kind. Big. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| Denniston was a coal town at the cold, windy and wet top of a mountain north of Wesport, which from the late 1800s until the 60s was home to some very tough coal miners and their families. It's now deserted although there's still a little bit of slowly dying-off coal mining in the area. There is a really great info centre on the site. And a really good site with info: denniston.co.nz |
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| Denniston is 600 m above sea level, so coal was sent down the steep hill - the Denniston Incline - and the carts came back up via a counterweighted system of pure Kiwi ingenuity. Sometimes people rode up on the cars though they weren't meant to, but it was a bloody tough walk - the road didn't go through til the 60s. As you might imagine, sometimes runaway carts caused human carnage on their way down. |
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| Punakaiki Rocks, north of Greymouth. We were caught in a crazy multiple tourbus mob here, but managed to get this photo with no people in it. |
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| Department of Conservation campground near Lewis Pass |
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| Dropping down to the east of Lewis Pass, near Sylvia Flat. |
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| At Kaikoura on the East Coast, where a cold Southerly front blew in like a freight train. |
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| Kaikoura actually means "Crayfish" - there's a few around. |
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| Tramping on the Kaikoura Coast |
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| Tea break at Marfell's Beach, just south of Seddon. |
