Greymouth - Big Adventure Day 3

Day 3 of our holiday was pretty rubbish. We spent a good six hours driving from Kaikoura to Greymouth, and then Greymouth itself lived up to it's name - its pretty grey and boring. The reason we were going to Greymouth at all was because we had to cross the Southern Alps, a mountain range that runs from north to south, splitting the island in half. This meant lots of winding mountain roads.

The only highlight of the day was the hostel, which was decorated in a very nice African theme and had spacious rooms, sparkling bathrooms, and a well equipped kitchen. And The Return of the King on DVD.

Instead of a detailed break down of our day, I shall tell you about the experience of driving in the South Island.

Firstly, there are hardly any roads. It was pretty much one road to each place we went to. Most of the places we went through exist entirely on that one road, so peoples addresses are things such as 'The Farm, State Highway 6, New Zealand'. Can you imagine if your street address was 'M1 Northbound'?

Secondly, New Zealand have simply wonderful road safety posters. My favourites are:

1. A picture of a corpse's feet with a cardboard identification tag tied round the toe, and the tagline 'SPEEDING TICKET' written over the top.
2. 'Drink' on the first line and 'Drive' on the second line, but the 'r' and the 'v' were written really small, so it seemed to read 'DRINK DIE'.
3. Plain black background with a white crucifix, and 'SLOW DOWN' emblazoned underneath.

Thirdly, due to the large amounts of native bush, periodically we would drive past swingometer-style boards informing us of the fire risk for that day in that area. Most of the time it varied between low and moderate, due to the weather, but once it was on 'Extreme', which was quite worrying.

Lastly, due to the combined geology and weather in the South Island, there are literally thousands of rivers and streams. Every time the road crosses one there is a little sign telling you the name of the stream. New Zealanders are not very inventive, so a lot are called things such as 'Station Creek' (it ran past the railway station) or 'Rocky Creek' (it was full of rocks). Even more are named after people. However, we came across some absolute gems:

1. Random Creek
2. Dismal Creek
3. Imp Grotto
4. So Big Creek
5. The Trickle No.1
6. The Trickle No.2

It was very entertaining.