It is ANZAC Day and back home we would have already been to and arrived home from the Dawn Service, had we been at home!
Instead we have woken at 7am in the Hokitika Seafront Hotel with our first decision to be made for the day to be what time should we go down for breakfast.
The 48 seater coach that had disgorged the over 60s on their tour was still in the car park which meant that probably the passengers were in the restaurant having their breakfast. It was a simple decision to therefore not be too quick to get down to the restaurant to let the place empty out.
By the time we had showered and readied ourselves and set off from our first floor room we could see the bus had departed and therefore the restaurant should be fairly empty and so it was.
It made a nice change not having to prepare our own breakfast and we partook fully of the breakfast as part of our overnight package.
Outside the weather looked threatening as the forecast had predicted but we thought a walk along the seafront path was still in order before
we headed away from Hokitika and inlands towards the gorge bearing the name of the town. This side trip is on the of my sister and even though the weather had signs of closing in with rain we should still be able to make the trip before the rain arrived.
We didnt get too far before the rain spread in from the sea and as it didnt look like it was going to stop quickly we abandoned the sea wall walk and headed back to the car which was close at hand just in case the weather turned against us.
With the usual petrol fill to be done before the days travel starts we were faced with NPD, Challenge or BP as the supplier to choose from.NPD was an automated service station and they provide a bit of a challenge to get a fuel discount which looked to be on offer when you dont have someone to manually process your card payment. BP wasnt showing a discount as good as Challenge was so we opted for the latter and were very pleased to receive a whopping 12c a litre off just for showing our Gold Card.
Before we left the town we noticed people seemingly arriving for the ANZAC Day service to be held in the local cinema starting at 11am.We would have liked to have attended but the finishing time would have meant it would have been lunchtime before we got away from the town and probably not giving us enough time to visit the gorge and still make Fox Glacier for our next stay while it was still daylight.
The road east towards the Southern Alps and the Hokitika Gorge was definitely dairy country and it is hard to imagine the grass drying out from its verdant green colour on the West Coast where there is an abundance of rainfall. Everything looked very lush.
The road across the flat plain took us left and right several times passing by the Kowhitirangi memorial to the Stan Graham incident from Oct 1940 when the local farmer down on his luck shot and killed 7 policemen and others during a 12 day manhunt by over 100 police and several hundred soldiers and members of the home guard tracked him down before Graham too was shot and died 3 days later in Westland Hospital, Hokitika.
Light showers were passing by as we arrived at the car park to the gorge walk but having travelled the distance to get here we werent going to be put off by a little bit of rain.
The walk into the swing bridge, which was as far as intended to go, was easy and through a stand of forest. At one stage the path takes you on an elevated walkway that makes it almost like you are walking in the treetops.
The first view of the swing bridge over the ice blue coloured river (snow fed water) had a notice that drones were not to be flown in the area. It seems this is a sign of the times as drones have almost a toy, when they are not used for purpose, and have rather a nuisance.
