Greymouth

I am awoken this morning by Joe slamming the door shut. The sun is just peaking up over the mountains, our windows are heavily misted from the night, and I’m still pretty sleepy. We’re parked in a little grass parking lot. Between us and the beach is a rugby pitch, which has turned golden in the sunrise. I had heard there is nothing to do in Greymouth, but it looks absolutely beautiful to me. I sit and make some breakfast while Joe goes and scopes the waves.

The trip up to Greymouth was one of our prettiest. Leaving from Queenstown, we head North for glacier territory, but are stopped several times by the scenery.

First stop is along the main highway, at this stunning lake. Joe and I are like kids again as we run from the car to the water. This is just some little place we pull off on the side of the road. Nobody else stops here because, I can only assume, this is no out-of-the-ordinary beauty for the natives here. For us, this is one of the greatest lake views I’ve seen.

Next, we make a pit stop at some short little hike advertised as the “blue pools”. After a little walk through the rainforest and a few rickety bridges, we find the blue pools and hop on in. I was feeling a bit fatigued on the road, so the ice-cold water is a good little wake up for me.

Finally, we make it to the glaciers. The largest in the area is the Franz Josef glacier, named after Franz Josef. It’s hard to grasp how big this thing is in pictures, but it is freaking massive, and a bit surreal looking at a huge chunk of ice like this in the middle of summer.

Joe, on a bet, dunks his head in the glacier water (which, we determine, is the coldest possible water he could dunk his head in), and we watch the sunset over the mountains with some tuna sandwiches (prepared on the top of the car).

We drive until Greymouth, and both pass out in the car. It’s supposed to be a pretty good little surf spot here, so Joe is excited. I’m pretty content, amidst the scenery, to just sit back and watch.