Morgan and David have made it to Greymouth for New Years, and have done quite a bit since Reefton. We fished Larry’s Creek for two days and landed/saw some very large fish. After Larry’s we went up to fish a tributary of the Buller River called the Ohikinui. It was a great river, but a long day after hiking in about 2 hours just to start fishing. The dry fly fishing is getting better here, and we landed all our fish on dries that day. David landed the first fish of the day out of the first pool we came to. Morgan was still eating breakfast.

It tends to rain around 4 PM everyday now and then clears up overnight, so wherever we go (we have learned the hard way), we always take our rain gear. The sand flies seem more vicious and miserable on the West Coast……they love to bite your hands! You just have to make sure to cover up your entire body, so needless to say, we are pretty pale for it to be summer. We decided to take a few days and do some sight -seeing since the rain became worse. First, we went to Westport and hiked the Cape Foulwind walk in the morning and then made it to the small town of Punakaki that afternoon. Punakaki is the main city for the Paparoa National Park where the famous pancake rocks and blowholes are found. We visited the park and even went to one of the underground caves, which was something different. We found a good spot to camp along the beach, and laid in the car as the rain poured down on us. We spent most of the next day re-stocking on gear and food in Greymouth after a morning hike. We also ventured over to Monteith’s Brewing Company, a West Coast icon. It rained cats and dogs all day. David managed to lose our third and last Spork while we have been here. It is funny because Morgan thought about bringing 4 on the trip, but David said “why would we need 4 sporks?” The first two met their fate in a cold jar of peanut butter (2 consecutive morning in row), and the last one got swept to sea, and is probably in Tasmania now. David decided to be sweet and go wash dishes in the ocean, and a huge wave came in while he was not looking and swept the dishes away….. He got everything except the Spork. Morgan has been craving tacos/nachos, so we decided to make that our New Year’s dinner later. There are NO Mexican restaurants in the entire country of New Zealand, or any we can find. With a country being so keen on take outs and fast food, you think they would have some type of Mexican place. So for the end of 2013, we are going to enjoy our $6 jar of Pace Picante Salsa and $8 hard taco shells. It has been a great year and looking back we have done so much. We cannot wait to see what 2014 brings us, and can’t wait to see all of our family and friends soon! We will post again soon, but are off to fish the Ahaura and Haupiri Rivers for now.

Cheers,

Morgan and David