Hallowe'en in Hokitika

Friday 31 October

A mostly peaceful night, we awoke to blue skies and packed up in a leisurely fashion (after Celebrity Traitors, of course) then said goodbye to Greymouth and set course for Hokitika. There was a sense of deja vu as we came through here on a bleak wet day in late January, but the town looked far more appealing in the spring sunshine!

We parked up at the NZMCA, a small camp just out of town across the river, had lunch then foolishly decided to walk back across the bridge into town… I swear the river is almost 1km wide and the wind blowing in off the sea was freezing!

Louis warmed up with a 2.8km swim in a 30*C pool (!) while I wandered around town exploring and visiting galleries.

Back to Banjo across the long and chilly bridge, a snooze, some work, dinner then we drove back into town for the sunset. The beach is pretty wild and strewn in driftwood, but golden hour was glorious. The sand is littered with penny flat pebbles that cry out to be stacked on the aesthetically pleasing driftwood - so who was I to deny their destiny?!

We walked to the estuary for the sunset, and back, then a chill evening in Banjo catching up with blogging. Happy days!