Hokitita

Before setting off this morning we had to deal with an unexpected problem – the centre console was leaking all over the dash! Tom fixed this problem and determined the buildup of condensation over the area probably wasn’t helped by the lack of a proper seal. Dripping aside we headed to Hoki, a cute little town, which is known as the ‘Arts & Crafts Capital of NZ’. Not surprisingly, there were multitudes of crafty little shops here and there. We popped into the iSite to find a Laundromat and ended up booking tickets to Shantytown (similar to Barkerville).

The Laundromat ended up being a tiny little room opening up onto the street on the bottom floor of backpackers with two (full) washers and two (full) dryers. Deciding that Greymouth would be more successful with laundry, we abandoned the efforts of clean clothes and went wandering. Wandered in and out of a variety of local craft stores and several of the jade shops. Hoki is also the capital of NZ for greenstone (jade). The one was ridiculously overpriced and very few of the pieces indicated NZ greenstone while the other shop had assigned tour bus parking out front but all their greenstone was NZ greenstone and the prices were much more affordable. One can guess where Chrissy spent a far amount of time….

Tom suggested lunch on the beach we picked up some bakery goodies (Lamington for Chrissy, apple turnover for Tom), made some sandwiches, and headed over to the beach. It was delicious and tasted even better while watching the tide come in.
We cleaned up and headed off to Shantytown where we spent a good part of the day exploring the mock town, striking it rich on a gold claim, and dressed up in old-time costumes for a photo. Upon figuring out the amount of time spent, we booked to Greymouth where we found laundry and left choked. Laundromats in NZ are not the Laundromats we are used to at home. Here they are tiny and often shoved into the most random of places. The one “recommended” by the iSite was situated at the back of a used car lot, which also doubled as a holiday park – only $20 for two to camp with power, and was hideously overpriced. It cost $3 to do a single load of washing (there were three machines) and $2 for 10 MINUTES in one of two dryers. Chrissy was beyond p.o’ed with this as the clothes ended up wetter than when they went in and money was wasted trying to get them to a decently damp state. Tom took this opportunity to leave her to her fury and filled up the LPG and scouted out the second Laundromat that was no better - a shack in the middle of a lot.

With a sour taste regarding laundry, we headed out of Greymouth and ended up at a random campsite at the side of the road. Apparently, an old school, the property had been transformed into a little holiday park with some spots having beachfront views! We nabbed one of the prime spots and settled in for a serene night amongst the stars and pounding waves. Walking along the beach after dinner was especially nice with the exception of the rapidly advancing high tide.