Punikaiki

Feb 3 day 21

 Up by 6am, packed and at the bus by 7...little break and then gone by 8...1st stop is the Bushmen Center...Peter the Bushmen comes aboard the bus and tells us of a time when men were men and sheep were afraid...very colorful guy all dressed up in his bush gear, insulted as many people as possible and then invited us in to see his place, museum, cafe and gift shop. Paid our $4 and entered his world...a short film of the last great deer hunt and roundup...the highlight of the film was bushmen jumping off helicopters to tackle deer, at the time they were going for $2,000 each to populate deer farms...these guys were crazy...Peter saves all the complaint letters and proudly displays them...sometimes you can even get possum pie. Very colorful character but a bit overplayed.

     Next stop is Hokitika for lunch, a tour thru the Jade Center and quick walk down to the beach and part of town. Very quaint “Western South Island” town. Amazing all the things they can do with Jade...we are not on a buying trip however so it was just window shopping for us...we are consuming less and less and purchase almost nothing...there was lots of stick art at the beach, did not see or meet the artist...had a quick lunch at a small local cafe and saddled back up on the bus for more driving.

     Pancake Rocks was awesome...thru the yars weathered to look like stacks of rocks on each other...beautiful walk with terrific scenery. Blowholes were’t blowing because our timing and the calmness of the ocean were working against us...word is they are huge...too bad.

     Finally got into Punikaiki and the campground for the night...no upgrades available but Chris had a room that fit 4 so we bunked in with him...shared toilet but easier for Deb to get in and out of than a tent. Nanc and I went along to keep her company. We walked down to Truman Track and down to the beach, there was a small waterfall right at the beach and the place was awesome...the pictures are super...the camp is in Porarari Park and it is amazing...after our hike we stopped at Punikaiki Tavern for a couple beers and some chips...beer was cold and went down way to easy, we all, Deb, Steve, Nanc and I decided we’d come back after dinner for a couple more...nice to sit in real chairs and relax for an hour. Tomorrow lots of driving in front of us....absolutely the worst part of this kind of tour is all the bus time...views are outstanding but its still hard on the butt and boring...oh well, at least tonight we’ll be warm and dry.