The West Coast Wilderness Trail goes from Greymouth to Ross, and others before us have told us it’s not to be missed.
We have so far ridden from Greymouth to Hokitika, but are taking a rest day in Hokitika to give our tired bodies some chance to recover. Our bodies reminded us that they are tired this morning. 😉
While we could have ridden all the way to Hokitika from Greymouth in one day, we decided to stay at a home stay along the way at Lake Kaniere, about 45 miles from Greymouth.
We stopped at Kumara along the way, buying a meat pie, a pasty and a donut for lunch, along with some coffee. The story of the owners…these people had a business near Madrid, Spain that went bust with the financial crisis and so they moved to Kumara to start this market. Kumara is tiny compared to Madrid! And yet it seems more tidy and sophisticated that one would expect from its location and size. Food was good too!
From Kumara, we climbed through the winding trail, nicely maintained and lined with trees and vegetation of all sorts, stream crossings, lakes, bridges and mountain views.
The trail was mostly shaded with dappled sunlight making for a lovely experience. This is an A+ trail to ride! We passed by the ill-named “Cowboy Paradise”, a disheveled set of cheap looking buildings run by a Trump fan (in NZ!?) that looked abandoned, but was nominally open for business. Descending down a precipitous set of switchbacks to the river valley we would follow for a couple miles, we stopped to admire the view and have a snack.
We went over the last hill to our place for the night at a home-stay overlooking Lake Kaniere, hosted by Grant. He greeted us with a checkered winners flag from the deck!
That was fun, staying with a 72 year-old guy with a full beard, a thirst for whiskey and a generous spirit. He built the house that we stayed in some 40 years previous, and keeps it in perfect condition, with house rules prominently displayed next to the toilet for guests. We shared our dinner with him, but to be fair he gave us his eggs that were omitted from our grocery store order.
In the morning, we had porridge, packed up and rode the short 15 miles down to Hokitika, meeting two charming young women along the way. Lena and Angelica, from Germany and France respectively, met each other at Picton just a few days previous and were now riding together. We all rode into Hokitika and shared coffee, snacks and conversation. We hope to see them both again on this trip, or maybe even in Boulder! Delightful people.
Our room in Hokitika was not quite ready, so we took a short ride around town, to the beach and did some shopping. The beach had some amazing driftwood sculptures. The town has a famous clock in the center. This will be a good place to spend a couple days.
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