Day 21 — The awful day
As it goes, nothing is perfect. And this is how an awful day looks like.
Until noon everything looked just fine. It started quite nice on a campground where we had jumped roped into the crystal clear Buller river and biked into the little cozy town Murchison, which was near by, the day before. On the way out we stopped at the busy popular cafe of that town and hooked us up with some delicious morning drinks. We walked over the humongous Buller Gorge Swing bridge and tandem zip lined back. Classical happy adventurous vacation moments…until…
…half an hour later we were told by friendly road workers that the road we planned to go was closed and we had to go on a detour. Well, detours in NZ mean you are adding easily 2–3 hours driving time as there are not many roads here. So, we decided to just go with the flow and dropped our plans for the day. We looked at the map and found a new destination. Greymouth. By about 4pm we arrived in Greymouth and were in desperate need of a decent afternoon snack. We had experienced a 4pm closure of cafes in the nice cozy town Nelson, but haven’t transferred that knowledge to Greymouth. In Greymouth also everything closes at 4pm. Restaurants opening by 5pm for the dinner rush. But between 4 and 5pm you’re left out to starve to death. Imagine four hungry zombies roaming the empty streets of Greymouth for finding some food… At the end we did find a pizza place which served us fresh pizza. Hurray! Lesson no 3: Do not try to find an open cafe in NZ after 4pm. You’ll not succeed.
Our next idea was to find a camping place for the night. The next little town Hokitika looked very promising being the centre of Jade, beautiful beach and cozy stores. We arrived at 6pm at the first camping place and it was full. So were the next two. Our last option in Hokitika was the Seaview exclusive lodge. A former hospital for the mental ill closed like 30 years ago. And ever since they have not touched it.
We got a place on the parking lot and were glad we had found a place. After us there were about 10 other camper vans which had not such a luck. But the place was awful. Everything run down, smelly and you’re afraid to touch anything. You might get infected with an unknown virus. The furniture from the hospital was still original and just plain creepy. While wandering this complete place of awfulness I was wondering how could such place exist? Why wouldn’t everyone avoid it like the pest? Well, it turned out that Hokitika is the last big stop on the way to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and everyone wants to stay here to fill up. So do we.
If anyone is in need of a business idea. Grab all your savings, buy a piece of land in Hokitika and open a Holiday Camping Park. You’ll be guaranteed a million bucks!
The next morning I had to take my usual shower. At least they didn’t charge extra for that. I tried to not to make contact with anything than just the water. But the temperature was uncontrollable. After a perfect warm start until I managed to shampoo my hair, the water turned so hot I thought the psycho ghosts wanted to cook me. I squatted down so I could get that shampoo out thinking that the water would be cooled down a bit at the floor. And then the nightmare happened. My butt touched the shower curtain! A scream and I was out of there. If I die soon then it is because of that horrible virus I have on my butt now…
