Paparoa Track - Smoko-ho road end to Ces Clark Hut

There was no hurry to leave on our adventures so we got ourselves ready in a leisurely fashion and first headed to Greymouth for our last supplies. Countdown for wraps, cheese and snacks; The Warehouse for a baseball cap and hand sanitiser. Then off through the charming eccentric Blackball to the Smoko-ho road end and the start of our adventures.

The first smart decision was to have brunch in the car park. All the less to carry! Still, as we set off around 11am, my pack felt very heavy. It was something north of 20kg I think. Maybe all the cheese and snacks, and the steamed pudding desserts, weren't that clever after all.

And off we go

The track was wonderful. Even and well formed. A perfect Great Walk and shared track for bikers too. We wandered along up a gentle incline in lovely weather. 

Like a highway

Wonderful track

Lots of sturdy new swing bridges

Our first stop was Garden Gully Hut, a historic canvas-sided hut from the gold rush era (though I suspect like Grandfather's axe, little of the original structure remained). Right beside a wonderful swimming hole that had Angela sorely tempted. 

The water's so clear!

We dropped our packs and followed the signs to the stamping battery. An impressive structure it was too. We didn't continue on to the mine as other walkers had told us not to bother.

Stamping Battery

Reunited with our packs we continued on. It started more steeply uphill from here, but still a comfortable gradient. Long thin beech grew over the track at first, but soon we were in subalpine scrub. A small marker showing 1km to the hut was a welcome sight. 

Onwards up the track

Ces Clark Hut loomed in the distance as we grew closer. We arrived, around 4pm, to the sound of happy trampers. Suzanne from the walking meetup group was there, and her tramping buddy Trevor. There was also an older party revisiting a past trip where they saw nothing but murk, and a third group of friends that we followed the whole way. 

The hut itself is wonderful. It's got an old school charm and a quirky design that follows the contours of the hill it's built on; but it's been done up nicely with new double glazed windows and a new roof and a huge deck and fresh paint inside.

The deck immediately attracted me, especially since the hut was hot and we had upper bunks. I found a nice space for my mat and sleeping bag, to the amazement and dubious looks of my hut mates. 

Nice deck. Long but with good girth too.

Dinner was of course, a backcountry meal. Tonight's delight was Creamy Carbonara and it definitely hit the spot. Especially with a tin of tuna quietly mixed in. Creamy Carbonara al pisce.  The steamed pudding that followed, not so good. Stodgy and dry. Janine's golden syrup version much nicer. 

As it got dark, around 9pm, we crept off to bed. I tried my best to sandfly-proof and weka-proof myself and tucked up on the deck.

Paroa Hotel 3.5 stars

Paroa hotel for dinner was a good recommendation but my meal was ... entertaining. And worth a post all to itself.

We were welcomed and seated quickly and soon had drinks. Janine was starving and hangry so I got wedges and garlic bread on the go immediately. The menu was great, even the single vege option looked amazing and made Angela happy. My choice was immediate - the $38 "steak connoisseur's delight". 

All the food was great and my steak looked really good. But a sinking feeling started when I cut into it and my knife stopped. No slide through like butter here. So I sawed. And sawed. Eventually a piece came off revealing a greyish textured interior . Medium rare this was not. Even medium? Nah. Lots of well doneness here.

So many thoughts crossed my mind. It was a $38 steak. I was so looking forward to it. It would be my last meal for days where the preparation wouldn't be "add boiling water to bag and wait 15 minutes".

So I did something I'd never, ever done before in my life.

I sent it back.

The waitress was like a deer in the headlights - I don't think this had happened to her either. Eventually she took my plate away and shuffled off to the kitchen with it.

The wait was long.

I had eye contact with the servery so I saw at last, as the others were finishing their meals, another steak come out. Hooray! The waitress grabbed it, along with a salad plate. There was some animated discussion between her and the chef. The chef gestured to the door to carry on the conversation.

The waitress moved to the door.

The chef flung the door open.

Time slowed

The door hit the plate with my steak on it.

Angela recounts how both Allyson and I went "OHHH" simultaneously at this point

My steak started on a clean ballistic trajectory that ended neatly at another diner. 

On the back of her head.

My steak slid slowly down the back of her dress and deposited itself on the floor.

The  waitress juggled and moved and with a herculean effort kept most of the rosti, the chips and the sauce on the plate.

The diner turned.

The waitress absorbed the true horror of what had just unfolded.

Time returned to normal. With much apologising and cleaning and looking after the diner who just wore my steak. The chef's shoulders slumped. She disconsolately walked back to her kitchen. She let out the biggest sigh.

I looked on, still hungry.

To be fair, it was pretty good when it turned up an hour later. 

Road trip Blenheim to Greymouth

The alarm went off at 6am - today was to be an early departure since we had far to go and lots to do. After a slightly more panicked departure when Angela couldn't find her purse (later located neatly and very safely tucked into a drybag) we were off from Blenheim, heading to Westport to collect Allyson.

Our first stop was breakfast at the St Arnaud Alpine Store that's a cafe, fish and chip shop, dairy and petrol station. Angela and I have fond memories of good food and cheerful service here. Maybe we were tired and hungry then, because the food was basic and the service very slow (but still cheerful). Our scrambled eggs were like the ones I used to make before Angela taught me how to do it properly. Janine got told there was a 20 min wait on coffee because there'd been a rush of 7 people ordering. She wasn't happy.

Angela's iced coffee was good though

The drive to Westport, through the Waiau valley and Buller Gorge, was beautiful. Traffic was good enough, little delays and not many scares. The SH6 part of the road has seen a lot of work while it was the main road to Christchurch, but it's a bit perplexing where single lane bridges have been replaced by ... newer single lane bridges.

We found Allyson outside the Art Hotel where she'd stayed. Hmm. Not the best place to stay! Allyson called it the Bates Motel. 

Hi Allyson! The car is quite full by now

The drive down the West Coast was stunning. A couple of photo stops before we arrived in Punakaiki. Dropped a spare car key off with at the camping ground. Punakaiki is where we finish, and the camping ground are going to relocate Janine's car for us. 

Irimahuwhero Lookout

Randomly I saw Sharron from tramping club wandering round so leapt out of the car to say hello. She's running the Paparoa track while we're on it! Hopefully we see her on the track.

We checked out the famous Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

Our accommodation for the night is the Greymouth Kiwi Holiday Park - actually in Paroa, about 6km south of Greymouth. Certainly pleasant enough and right across the road from the beach. We checked into our wee cabin, and I went for a run on the beach. We tried out their spa pool too.

Angela came down to the beach too

Sydney and Peregian Springs in the distance

Driftwood house

Mike runs

Mike feeds the slutty horse

Christmas and the start of our Southern Adventure

 Hi,

Mike is creating a blogging masterpiece about our wonderful Christmas break.  But for a teaser, read on.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning croissants

Mike managed to find croissants for Christmas day at our usual Moulin bakery.  Yay!  Mike's mother stayed on Christmas Eve so she could enjoy Christmas morning with us.

Toby gave me a photo so I wouldn't forget him

We nibble on the gingerbread house

We made our lunch stuff and headed out to 40WLW for the lunch.  The weather really turned it on after poor weather on Christmas Eve and back to freezing weather on Boxing Day.

 

Christmas lunch starts

Cheers, Sally.

Sally did an amazing job yet again.  We chatted to my mother during the after lunch wind down.  She would have loved being here.

Enjoy.

Aidan carves

Family chatting

Snap!

Such a hot day

Wish Mum was here to enjoy it

We remembered Ron with a tribute of photos on the television that played through the day.  One year to the day.  His legacy certainly continues though.

Back home fairly early and not long from bed.  Boxing Day we did a bit of shopping - using the bus.  I got my new backpack from Bivouac.  An Osprey 65L one.  (And now I have tramped 55km with it on, I can vouch for it being a great backpack).

27 December - Our southern adventure begins

Up early for the check in at the Interislander ferry at 5.20am.  Oohhh.  Very early.

As we got on as foot passengers and found a couple of comfy seats around a low table, Mike saw Donna (from tramping club from years ago) with her two kids (David and Devon) wander by.  So he went and nabbed them to see if they wanted to join us.  They had Donna's sister and her husband with them too, so we got a few more chairs.  Chatted away to them for the duration of the trip.  Mike also saw another tramping mate:  Richard.

On the ferry

A little bit wild outside (but not too bumpy inside)

Iona and Col met us off the ferry and took us to Gusto cafe for brekkie.  Mmmm.  We also popped into the Picton hardware shop.  It was one of those cool shops that has a little bit of everything to poke your nose into.

Gusto iced coffee

Random selfie at Iona and Col's house

Then to their house and off for a walk to Quail Creek in the Wither Hills.  Awesome walk.  Sue joined us too.  Yay for seeing Sue.

Walking Quail Creek with Iona, Col and Sue.

Lovely walk

Photo bombed!

Me and the ridgeline

Back to the community orchard near their house to get some plums and stuff.  Then Sue went off for her thing and we wandered out to Helen and Mandy's house to help them move a couch from their top floor to the ground floor.

Passing down plums

Helen and Mandy had this.  Don't knock it til you try it.

Let me try and capture the wonderful episode surrounding the great couch moving of 2020.  Helen and Mandy had this giant leather couch on the first floor of their house.  Huge burly movers had managed (with lots of swearing) to get it up there when they moved in.  But now it was in the wrong place and needed to move back downstairs.

The stairwell had a landing and the stairs doubled back on themselves.  After stripping the couch of what we could, we still couldn't fit it easily down.  Mike got a tape measure and determined it was going to be tricky whatever way we squashed it down because the lower flight of stairs was even narrower.  

My refrain was:  let's just try it.

Probably lucky they didn't listen to me.

Anyway, Helen had this idea to belay it off the first floor into the foyer with the kayak tie downs.  I was skeptical.  But, after she removed the backing fabric from the bottom and found some solid belay points, we gave it a go.

3 of us belayed from above (me, Helen and Iona).  Helen had a knotting technique for her belaying that Iona and I eschewed.  I had visions of the couch getting a bit of momentum over the balustrade and taking any belayers with it.  My intention was to let go if that looked likely.  And being tied to the belay tie down didn't seem like a sensible idea.

But Helen knew best.  Because it was so easy.  We teetered the couch on its balance point across the balustrade, Mike ran down to guide it down, along with Col and Mandy.  And we slowly lowered it to their waiting hands.

Gobsmacked it went so well.

The couch is on the ground floor!

Helen then showed us around her garden (2 acres of it!) and described her 20 year plan to get the garden under control.  She has a job for life.

Off home to get changed for dinner out with Helen and Mandy at Thai 9.  And they paid for tea to thank us.  Heck - we should have paid them for such fun!  Thank you.

28 December - Anakiwa to Davies Bay

We had a great sleep in Iona & Col's spare bed, and that made for a leisurely start for the day.  Soon enough we were off driving to Anakiwa for a nice stroll to Davies Bay up the Queen Charlotte track.

Mike was absolutely delighted to see a coffee caravan hosted by a friendly man who couldn't take cards but was happy to get bank transfers instead. Coffees all round! Delightful.

We walked the 3km into Davies Bay and gave me a taste of the Queen Charlotte walk.  The DoC campsite at Davies Bay was completely empty.  So I will file that away as a possible summer holiday.

Anakiwa walk to Davies Bay

She's not super happy about this, but loves me enough to tolerate it a bit.  I am lucky.

Selfie on the walk

We pop into Davies Bay

Here!

On the beach

There they are!

Feet

Picnic

Mine has a label

Group selfie

On the track

Dutch angles

Jetty at Anakiwa

After we got back from the walk, we popped into Havelock to see Barb and Hamish and got a cup of tea.  So good to see her house there because when she works from there now, I can picture it.

Hi Barb!

Janine was waiting for us when we got back to Blenheim, having finished her Richmond Ranges adventure. Sally followed not long after. We all had burritos for dinner and then Sally picked up Andrew from the airport. (A Gilbert Plan! Sally came across on the ferry in the morning, and then Andrew flew over in the evening). 

We chatted and planned adventures and did last minute packing until Sally and Andrew headed off, and we all excitedly headed to bed. The adventure begins tomorrow!

Stay tuned to see Mike's blog about the next part.  It includes such highlights as:

• Flying steaks at Paroa Pub
• Great walk
• Eco lodge with stunning views

Take care.

Love,

Angela