The Brotzman Adventures -Day 5

From Franz to Haast

We let ourselves sleep in after our big hike the day before, but after waking at 7 so often for work and other committments, I found it difficult to stay asleep. When I finally accepted the sound of the alarm, I realized just how trying the previous day's adventure had been on my body. Although I consider myself a person of decent fitness, my legs were aching and my feet sore right to the bone. I still believe every ache was worth it, to see such stunning natural beauty is so rare a thing in today's world.

Karen, my father and I made our way to the Cheaky Kea for another lovely breakfast. It reminded me a bit of college life...buffet style almost, with eggs to order. Except this time we had to pay for it. After a few pictures outside the Cheaky Kea, a quick hello to Troy as he loaded up the bus for the day's morning tour (that is just how small the town is), an amusing final conversation with our hotel buddy Oscar and a short tramp on a local trail called the Minniehaha Walk, we were on our way South. To Haast.

And yes, it's about as exciting as it sounds.

The name says it all. Haast. It is exactly what I expected the typical, non-touristy West Coast town of New Zealand to be like. You see, Greymouth, although small and kind of dingy due to its coal mining history, still had nearly 3000 people living there. The streets, although few, were wall to wall cafés, clothing stores, bars and other things useful in a town that has the only major rail station connecting the West to the East. And then there's Franz, which is actually a bit smaller than Haast by a few people (like maybe 10), but it feels larger because of the tourist scene. Because it's bustling with activity and comers and goers. But Haast, to use a term very popular in Kiwi-speak, seemed very "little-wee-tiny" indeed. Sure it had fewer people living there than my graduating class at Hamilton, but it felt like less. Like people were hidden away in their homes. For the first time since I've been in this country, I felt as though I had entered into a ghost town. The first place I've been with no stores, no shops...only hotels and restaurants in those hotels. There was an information center, which looked as though it would have cost a billion dollars to make. Right on the water, there was a lounge with an enormous bay window, a miniature museum, bathrooms that looked as though they had never been used and the friendliest people around to help.

The hotel we came upon was one of the nicest places I've stayed in a long time...except for the fact that it was probably the worst scenary in Haast. We did have a nice view of a fenced-in field with two buck elk roaming about, but the rest was dust and dry grasses. We ate lunch at McGuires, the little restaurant at the Hotel and then I took my tired butt back to have a nap. Hours upon hours of driving just wore me out. So my Dad and Karen went down to Haast beach, which proved much more beautiful than Haast "roadside" where we were staying. They returned an hour later and we went off to explore the waterfalls in the area. The Roaring Billy Falls, Thunder Creek Falls and Fantail Falls. We skipped stones across the Haast River (where i almost skipped a stone across Karen's face, long story.), visited with Fantails and admired the waterfalls hidden back in their own unique bits of paradise. We then stopped at the Gateway to Haast, which was basically just a bridge above a roaring river. The sun was setting so we decided to make our final stop the Haast beach to walk and enjoy the sunset, which proved to be gorgeous.

We returned to our hotel, ate again at McGuires and chatted a bit with the waitress. I think I was curious about the size of this town and how there were places of business that actually succeeded in finding workers who wanted to stay there. And many of the people working seemed young, between 18 and 24. During our talks I found that there was no doctor in town, only a nurse, and that if someone needed to see one, they'd have to travel to Wanaka, nearly 2 hours south. If it was a serious issue, they would have to get heli-lifted to Wanaka for surgery. I also realized that there were no grocery stores, only gas stations with small dairies, providing the bare minimum. The residential part of town seemed to be nothing more than a small development like the one back home...only MUCH smaller.

After dinner Dad went to bed while Karen and I stayed up to enjoy the ridiculously nice lounge which had sky Movies on. Spanglish (if you've not seen it I highly recommend it) was playing and we decided to do some knitting in our PJ's while watching. The hotel lounge finally closed so we retired to Karen's barn-sized room to finish the movie and our knitting. And then I was off to bed. Because I was exhausted, and we had a long day coming up with a drive back up towards Hokitika. We had come as far south as our time would allow us and it was time to start heading towards home.

-NMK