All about West coast Mining...

Sunday 25 October

After a frenetic day of exploration and activity - we took things a bit easier. Louis went for a swim in the local pool and I went for a walk on the beach and a video chat with the Fernandi as a sneak preview for January! It was cloudy with a hint of blue skies so the reflections as the tide went out were panoramic. I decided to brave the waves and had a "dibble for Debbie" - and can report back that it was pretty darn chilly!

The weather was threatening to get worse later so we set off as soon as we could to visit Denniston, a historic coal mining settlement up in the hills. Turns out we were too late - the clouds gathered around us as we zigzagged our way up the crazy switchback road to the plateau and by the time we got there it was heaving down and we could hardly see beyond our noses!

We took a wet walk to the brake head then gave up and drove back down to relative sanity on the coast! When Denniston was set up as a mining settlement back in the 19th century there was no road to drive up - every item of machinery, construction materials, furnishings, clothing, food & produce, and even people had to be winched up and down the phenomenally steep cliffs in a coal cart - terrifying!

Bought tickets for the “Pike River” movie, given that we are in the heart of the West Coast mining region, and popped back to the caravan for lunch and to realign Banjo for the anticipated stormy winds overnight. Mr Weka was there to check on us again - but our mukmat remained safe! Wandering in town there were some quirky sights - an old fella with a Halloween Storm Trooper bike, the ladies loos which were painted hot magenta with wild murals and a poster for the Thunder from Downunder - last spotted in Vegas entertaining my sister Linus and cousin Jenny!

Shocked to find ourselves in a packed screening at the small local cinema that evening - and very emotional by the end of the movie. The mining disaster back in 2010 still haunts this region and the story was told brilliantly.

We took ourselves out for dinner at the rather average PortSide Bistro then drove over to the ominously named Cape Foulwind to catch the sunset by the lighthouse.

Settled in for a rocky & rainy night - but in reality it was much less wild than expected.