Farmland with the ocean in the background

The little lambs were so cute!

On the first day of our road trip. Sean and I drove to Greymouth, a city of about 7000 on the west coast.  The scenery along the route was spectacular and everything that one would imagine New Zealand to look like: snow-capped mountains, alpine lakes, bright green farmland and a raw and rugged coastline.  A few things that stuck out were the complete absence of people and the omnipresent sheep - they were everywhere.  Luckily, it's lambing season so we not only got to see the wooly mama sheep but also the tiny little lambs that jumped and ran around.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the lambs

One way bridge coming up - get ready!

Another thing that stuck out were the sheer number of one lane bridges.  There are no two lane bridges in New Zealand; every bridge is a single lane with a sign on each side which alerts who has the right of way.  Similarly, there doesn't seem to be any two lane highways either.  What Kiwis classify as a highway is really just a single lane country road.  This is all fine by me, however.  The drive was relaxing, void of other cars and people and filled with beautiful views.

Our "cabin" at the holiday park - it was pretty classy

But I shouldn't say that the whole drive was relaxing.  I drove for about 3 hours and for that bit the atmosphere in the station wagon was a bit tense.  I had driven a little bit in Queenstown beforehand to practice, but this was my first real chance at getting to drive for an extended period of time.  It was terrifying and in no way recommended for those who are spatially/directionally challenged.  My heart literally skipped a beat when other cars passed me on the right and the steering wheel was slick with sweat from my hands.  The speed limit was 100 kph but I averaged about 80.  Fortunately, like I mentioned earlier, there weren't many other cars on the road.  Sean maintains that the whole process was actually more agonizing for him.

Unpacking

When we arrived in Greymouth, we checked in to our "holiday park" and put on our hiking boots.  We had a brewery tour booked in town and didn't want to drive after the tour so we had decided to hoof it into town.  To make the tour by 6pm we were going to have to go quite a bit faster than we had planned.  I wasn't too fired up about this and when we hit about 5k running in the pouring rain, Sean had to go ahead because I wasn't keeping a fast enough pace for us to make it.  He ran ahead and stalled until I arrived about 6 minutes later soaking wet, panting and out of breath but definitely ready for the tour.  I am sure we looked ridiculous.


Monteiths is one of New Zealand's leading microbreweries and makes a few different kinds of beers and ciders which they not only serve to Kiwis but also export to Australia and the U.K.  After the tour of the tiny brewery we got the chance to try their range of brews including the seasonal apricot ale.  After we had warmed up by the fire and used all of our free beer tickets, we started the long walk back to our campground.  Day one of our vacation was definitely off to a running start.

We all had to wear high visibility vests while on the tour which is funny because the brewery was about the size of a small house

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