26th April,

Made our way to Hokatika NZMCA site south side  over the bridge from Hokatika. Stayed there a night and talked to some other members. A very good verse we saw on a back of a van I would like to share with everyone. "Adventure before Dementia we'll travel the gravel until we unravel".
Woke up to a lovely sunny day on the West coast agian. The park over was great  very private and the best thing it was Free to NZMCA members.

 Photo`s taken from rear of  nzmca site at Hokitika

Visited friends of ours, Colin and Faye Hartwig for lunch . We decided to stay with them for a couple of nights and catch up with all the news of family etc. Went for a 2 3/4 hour walk around Hokatika along the beach and around the small town.  Met up with another couple in there motorhome and had a cuppa with them. The population of the West coast is not large, around 35,000.

                                             Hokitika from lookout by Airport.

Hokitika from lookout by Airport.

Had a lovely walk up behind Colin and Faye's home and saw the surrounding mountains ( Mt Cook, etc)
Went to start the bus on 28th (Thursday)  you guess it . The batteries had died. AA came and did us a jump start . Off to Greymouth we went in search of two battery's.  $407.00 lighter we were a lot happier knowing that we would not have that problem again. Had lunch on the wharf while John changed the battery's over. We got $4.00 for both the old battery's at a scrap dealer.

We spent some time wondering around the township of Greymouth .
Made our way back to Paroa Hotel to meet up with Bob & Glenys Justine, Steve & Joyce Quinn, Ian and Glenis and Kelly and Micheal for tea plus some of Kelly and Micheals friends. A lovely evening. Parked Kiwikoala at the rear of the hotel for the night, this free parking is great.