Tuesday - Flooding!

We are ready to get the heck out of Dodge.  This rain seems just crazy.  I don’t know if it’s just here in the valley or what, but there is clearly no point in hiking up for a view of the glacier—we won’t be able to see a thing, and I suspect it isn’t really safe.  So we’re going to drive up to Hokitika.  This was the plan regardless, but we’re going early, and without seeing the glacier, which is disappointing.  However, we do have glaciers in Seattle, so it could be worse.  It’s just a big piece of ice, right?  Okay, so I’m imagining a giant ice cube right now.  Okay, now I don’t feel too disappointed.  Everything in the van is soggy.  All our towels are soggy.  I’m soggy.  Let’s get out of this storm!

The skies cleared as we drove further north, and after about 30 km we actually had some blue sky to admire.  I think we made the right decision.

Hokitika

Hokitika is a lovely little arts & crafts type of town on the west coast.  Beautiful jewelry and lots of jade work (they call it greenstone here).  The first thing we all wanted to do was to go to the Kiwi Centre:  time to see a kiwi!  We also got to feed giant eels, which was interesting and a little unnerving.  They are truly gigantic, growing to perhaps 8 feet long when they are 80-100 years old, as these were.  And yes, we saw a kiwi!  They are nocturnal, so the enclosure was dim, but we saw him come out and walk around for quite a while, eating and digging around for food.  He was larger than I expected, and so unusual looking!  Since they have no wings at all and no tail, they basically just consist of a body, two feet, and a head with quite a long, narrow beak.  Coen commented that it looks like half an animal—where is the rest of it?  We were quite pleased to see our kiwi, and of course Finn needed to get a stuffed kiwi to commemorate the occasion.

Another two excellent meals (for most of us—Finn is eating mainly bread and fries…):  lunch at Café de Paris and dinner at Hokitika Cheese & Deli (or something like that…) with amazing food, a working hive with a glass window opening into the restaurant (you can buy their honey) and even their own little walk-in refrigerated cheese room.  I recommend both restaurants the next time you find yourself in Hokitika.  :^)

People weren’t kidding when they said a lot of things would be closed the week after Christmas.  Apparently Monday is a holiday, as it is the day people get off work due to the fact that Christmas was on a Saturday.  Tuesday is also a holiday, since that is “Boxing Day Observed.”  Even the drugstore is closed!  (I need contact solution, and have been looking for a drugstore for three days.  Finally found one in Hokitika and it was open for one hour today!  I am not kidding.)  Even on a regular work day, everything seems to close at 5 p.m.  One of those things I just take for granted in the U.S.—anything that makes money, the stores will do.

Later:  Found out that there was flooding all up and down the west coast yesterday and this morning.  Cars in Hokitika were actually swept away!  The bridge over Arthur’s Pass is closed, and that’s how we have to get to Christchurch tomorrow to return our campervan!  Yikes.  We’re supposed to find out in the morning if they manage to repair the bridge.  Lots of landslides, boaters in trouble, houses flooded…  AND, as if that isn’t enough, we also just found out that on Sunday there was an earthquake aftershock in Christchurch.  My goodness.  Fingers crossed.