riverECHO

We spent our last morning in Queenstown packing a few final items into the wagon and saying goodbye to a few friends . . . our roommate Steve and Duncan, my “boss” at the winery, both of whom I hope we’ll see in Jackson someday. We were then off to Wanaka to have lunch with, and finally meet, Carol and Chris Peck, a couple Jacksonites who are down here for the winter on a ski partol exchange program. It was great to finally meet them and our conversation was non-stop from “hello, nice to meet you” to “see you back in Jackson.”

Then we truly hit the road, packed to the max, to our new home in Punakaiki. And it’s a good thing we bought chains because as soon as we hit Haast Pass, just as Duncan had predicted, our severe snow storm turned into blue skies and sunshine. We reached the west coast as the sun was setting and settled on spending the night in the town of Franz Josef, after a soak in their relatively new hot pools of course.

Today, we made a point to take our time driving up the west coast with an extended stop in a book shop in Hokitika (we scored a $4 puzzle and three new books for our upcoming quiet evenings) as well as lunch and a walk-around in Gremouth, the closest town for us if at any point we feel the urge for a bit of socializing. I think we already made a friend too . . .  a local photographer named Steward, who is really excited for us to come back to Greymouth and meet his younger more outdoorsy photographer friend.

And finally, the moment we had been waiting for . . . Punakaiki. Everything was just as we remembered it and we were instantly giddy. We quickly unpacked and headed to the beach, a full five minute walk, to watch the sunset. The waves along this section of coast are enormous and although not in the least bit inviting for a swim, they are spectacular as ever to watch. We’ve already made a pact to watch the sunset from the beach every night . . . that is unless it’s storming and we can’t see the sunset.