After a sad gray day departing the Vineyard, it was hard we'd come to rather love that place, we were off on the road again. With nothing better to do for the better part of week, where would we go, where should we. Out comes the map and of course, we should head left, to the West! We set off, with rumors of Huge trees, gray skies, rain, a sea called Tasman, and a festival of food unimaginable! Oh and let us not forget the stories of the people, so chilled out they make Ice seem afire. Stoke running high, Rupertina running (well cruising, she's a bit to old to run you see), and the booberry poised and ready we were off.
Pit stop one, Reefton. Reefton is tiny, very tiny, but very very pretty. About an hour off the coast in a beautiful lush green valley lies the town of very little, but famous for the first town to have electricity in NZ and the biggest Skate park, its not without charm. My mission for the day was to mount the big tired beast and pedal and push bikes to the top of a mountain. What a mission it was, 7 hours in the saddle to tire my skinny bum into a sorry lump. But what an adventure it was. To the kabin Kirwin I did go and back down did I blast, and blast and blast. Over an hour of some of the best riding I've ever done bar none. Twisted trees, roots, rocks, perfect dirt. its was like I died and went to single track heaven. Upon my return I found the fair lady posted up out side the van and a huge dinner we did grub. Then a race, us versus the van versus the itchy bite bugs. We packed her full only got about 1 million bites instead of two and into the night we raced!
There something about driving somewhere at night and just waiting to see what you get when you wake. Well we awoke in Greymouth, to a breakfast prepared in a park, the smell of ocean air and vivid green as far as the eye could see. The largest town we'd been to since leaving Christchurch, business was in order. After some exploration of town we found another wwoofing opportunity. This time at a backpackers where you can park you van out front and use all the facilities, all in exchange for 2 hours work handing out fliers at the local supermarket. This not only proved excellent for showers and laundry are grand, but it opened my eyes to a new profession of mine here in NZ. Busking, or street performing for money if you will. One fine lad, Daniel was also staying at the place handing out fliers and he often took his guitar down to make some extra beer money. We jammed, he said I had what it takes and off I went inspired. You see the super market is brilliant, its not really street performing, because that would imply performing. I'm no great musician, but people are there to go grocery shopping not check you out. So I pretty much sit there and practice and people give out their change from buying their groceries. Bloody brilliant, paid mando practice who could want more! So after sorting our lives, a bit of adventuring, and a few hundred coins richer we had to say by to greymouth.
Rumor of a festival where you eat worms, and foodies gather had us flying with the boobery south on the coast. A stunning 45 min drive later and bam Hokitika awaited. We also gave our first ride to a hitchhiker from the hostel. Grand to pay the karmic ride god back. A bit of confused map reading behind us we managed to find our man Mike, the guy behind the Wild Foods Festival! He was a legend, and the nicest guy ever to organize a huge event I've ever met. We spent the day hours digging trenches, moving tables, and marking out vendor stands to earn our way into the festival. Felt good to check off "volunteer" at a festival from the list. So we scored tickets to the Friday concert, the festival, the saturday concert, free lunch, and free beer! Mike was a legend, did I mention that.
Knowing we would be kicking it for a few days, we posted up on the beach and set up camp. This is what we saw the first night:
After that it was a steady stream of people for the next 2 days, as the town quadrupled in population from 3k to 12k. Interesting camps popped up, costumes came out, and beer lots and lots of beer. This festival was about food and drink not just food to say the least. Any way we danced the nights away and scarfed grub, only interesting not disgusting. Things like ostrich, punkao bird, and venison. We saw people eat live grubs from dead trees, and pickled grasshoppers, but we had to pass. The festival wrapped up and it was truely a few days of chaos, but things really returned to normal very quickly.
Sunday miday rolled around and it was just back to normal, so we decided to go for bike ride. Rebeccas first really big ride, we saddles up and road 30k inland to see this:
Something are just more rewarding when you travel by bike. This was one of those days. so so so beautiful and so much better to get there by your own will power.
To celebrate Rebeccas first big day on the push bike a dinner was powered thru and then a movie. Alice and wonderland was a great way to chill out in the evening. What a spectacle that movie is. Then NZ helped us do a little more celebrating with this:
Over and out for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment