31st Dec 2010 - Seeing the New Year in at Punakaiki
From Westport to Punakaiki Motor Camp ($31), the humble distance of about 40 miles, including all short digressions, deviations and sundry detours. The day started ok, but a big shop before we set off and a deviation to see the 'Coaltown Museum' (a bit overpriced at $12.50), and then a bolt snapping on one of the key fixings of my panniers (well spotted by Guy's keen eyes), all set us back as we shopped, mused and repaired. The museum explains Westport's role in the old West Coast coal industry. The key mine seems to have been Denniston, now bush covered ruins, with some wonderful inclined narrow gauge tracks down the hillsides at an angle of 1 in 1.3! Wow! I am surprised that it hasn't reopened as a rollercoaster for the tourists. Apparently there are too such inclines each descending over 800 feet and then crossing a bridge. Westport's railway then took the coal away. There's a small brewing exhibit - but nothing about the old Miner's Brewery (as West Coast Brewery was called until pretty recently) that I could see. Gold mining, earthquakes and some lovely model ships (and history of local shipping) finish off the displays.We cycled the 40 miles to Punakaiki fairly quickly since apart from one wonderful headland where the road climbs to a stunning view, the road is fast and there was no headwind.Punakaiki has pancake rocks (very layered rocks caused by sedimentation and then some unusual compression effects), a blow hole/chimney where the sea shot spray up in the air occasionally (it was high tide so it did its stuff), and wonderful limestone gorges and cliffs. Some surfers were out in the sea but the waves, though large-ish, were not very neat or regular. The shorebreak was pretty nasty and there was a no swimming notice. The sea shelves steeply and you'd be pretty much immediately out of your depth in a rough sea.Back at the campsite now to see in the New Year - we're about to see what the Punakaiki Tavern is like and we may see in 2011 there...Ah, now in the Punakaiki Tavern.... Wonderful atmosphere - happy slight inebriation. Even more wonderful photo of Flaxmill Workers at Paturau near Nelson (from the Nelson Provincial Museum) - anarchically posing under a skull and crossbones with one playing a whistle, one an accordeon, another taking aim at a bird, another having his hair cut, another reading a newspaper with the word 'Truth' written on it (hoho), another playing what looks like a mandolin, another pair boxing, another drinking beer and another doing something I can't work out - may be a game of cats's cradle with skeins of flax? It's an unusual photo partcularly since there's a sense of playfulness, even irony. These are people making a funny photo, including the viewer in a joke that we are unlikely, perhaps, fully to appreciate. Perhaps this is a more than usually honest photo, and these are people questioning the future perception of them, not just flies stuck in amber, overwhelmed (as old photos often suggest) by a Tsunami of time.
From Westport to Punakaiki Motor Camp ($31), the humble distance of about 40 miles, including all short digressions, deviations and sundry detours. The day started ok, but a big shop before we set off and a deviation to see the 'Coaltown Museum' (a bit overpriced at $12.50), and then a bolt snapping on one of the key fixings of my panniers (well spotted by Guy's keen eyes), all set us back as we shopped, mused and repaired. The museum explains Westport's role in the old West Coast coal industry. The key mine seems to have been Denniston, now bush covered ruins, with some wonderful inclined narrow gauge tracks down the hillsides at an angle of 1 in 1.3! Wow! I am surprised that it hasn't reopened as a rollercoaster for the tourists. Apparently there are too such inclines each descending over 800 feet and then crossing a bridge. Westport's railway then took the coal away. There's a small brewing exhibit - but nothing about the old Miner's Brewery (as West Coast Brewery was called until pretty recently) that I could see. Gold mining, earthquakes and some lovely model ships (and history of local shipping) finish off the displays.We cycled the 40 miles to Punakaiki fairly quickly since apart from one wonderful headland where the road climbs to a stunning view, the road is fast and there was no headwind.Punakaiki has pancake rocks (very layered rocks caused by sedimentation and then some unusual compression effects), a blow hole/chimney where the sea shot spray up in the air occasionally (it was high tide so it did its stuff), and wonderful limestone gorges and cliffs. Some surfers were out in the sea but the waves, though large-ish, were not very neat or regular. The shorebreak was pretty nasty and there was a no swimming notice. The sea shelves steeply and you'd be pretty much immediately out of your depth in a rough sea.Back at the campsite now to see in the New Year - we're about to see what the Punakaiki Tavern is like and we may see in 2011 there...Ah, now in the Punakaiki Tavern.... Wonderful atmosphere - happy slight inebriation. Even more wonderful photo of Flaxmill Workers at Paturau near Nelson (from the Nelson Provincial Museum) - anarchically posing under a skull and crossbones with one playing a whistle, one an accordeon, another taking aim at a bird, another having his hair cut, another reading a newspaper with the word 'Truth' written on it (hoho), another playing what looks like a mandolin, another pair boxing, another drinking beer and another doing something I can't work out - may be a game of cats's cradle with skeins of flax? It's an unusual photo partcularly since there's a sense of playfulness, even irony. These are people making a funny photo, including the viewer in a joke that we are unlikely, perhaps, fully to appreciate. Perhaps this is a more than usually honest photo, and these are people questioning the future perception of them, not just flies stuck in amber, overwhelmed (as old photos often suggest) by a Tsunami of time.