Blog Day 228 Monday 19th December 2011

Greymouth

We are up at 7am this morning, and out as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Diem too much. We don't succeed with this as Diem pretty much follows us out the door. By 8.15 we are on the bus and making our way out of Marahau.

After only 10 minutes on the bus we stop of at a local bakery as Chooks (aka Chicken Boy) claims that in the mornings he can't function properly without coffee. We all pile off the bus and there are pies, coffee and hot chocolates flying out the bakery doors. Chicken Boy picks up a (free) pie but doesn't even ask about a coffee (Chicken Boy is like that).

Back on the bus we make our way south down to Greymouth. On the way we have a few scenic stops. First one is to a lookout point with amazing views of the surrounding mountains, next is at a pretty impressive river the runs right next to the road. The final stop is at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, which is an area along the coast that's houses these pretty unusual rock formations. They can only be described as stacks of pancakes. After a few more pictures it's back on the bus and on towards Greymouth.

It's a beautiful day in Greymouth and once we are checked into the hostel we go for a wander to the local supermarket for some supplies. This proves pretty uneventful and we are back at the hostel in no time. Everyone is getting ready for a large night down in the bar, cutting up bin bags to form fancy dress costumes. We aren't really feeling too social tonight as we haven't really gelled with many of our fellow (German, French, and other European) travellers. So we take ourselves off up to the room to write a few blogs and watch a movie.

Unfortunately for us our room is situated directly above the bar and the walls/floors are ridiculously thin! So we aren't sleeping until everyone else does.