Discovering Goldsborough

Last weekend B and I went on a mini roadtrip to Goldsborough (near Hokitika). This little spot use to be a well known gold mining area in the old days. These days it's quiet place people can go camping and/or fossick for gold bits and pieces only along the river bed.

B walked further up to see if there was anything he could see, we hadn't taken along our panning eqipment so we will have to go back at some point. This is how low the rivers are on the West Coast as Summer has been extremely dry, we desperately need some steady rain here.

Something nice I saw were some stone sculptures people had made along the river bank.

The river ran quite a distance and from what we discovered from the map there are a few tracks through the land and hills.

Although there wasn't much water I still managed to have a little paddle and rest my hot feet which was nice.

 

  

These last photos are the contents of a shed near the bridge that show many of the artefacts that have been found by people over the years from the gold mining days.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

The Barber

I've been finding a selection of murals around town that have been painted on Chorus utility boxes. This one is along one of the side roads off the main road along Greymouth. Painted by artist Ivory Racho it depicts the barber winds that add texture to the hills and mountains along with natural wind formations that occur and flow down the Grey River.

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Hertz

One of the many signs around Greymouth - this one next to the railway station advertises car rentals. I can't remember the name we used when we first visited in January last year before we moved down but it was way cheaper than these probably are.

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Line Maintenance

So last week on my day off I noticed these guys across the road outside our neighbour's house. Electronet is our local company who fixes power outages and does line maintenance etc. 

I'm guessing the latter is what they were doing. They weren't up there long and were gone again in about 10 minutes. I think they may have been making sure everything was ok in case we got hit by the cyclone.

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Tomatoes...

 

A couple of months ago we planted 2 tomato plants in the existing vegetable patch in our backyard. One of them hasn't done very well but the other one has taken off and is loaded with fruit. Our neighbour across the road gave us 2 more as well so we are hoping that before the end of Summer we will have a good crop before Autumn comes.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Triangles

There's a new mural up in Greymouth on the side one of the buildings on the main street in town. This one was created by "Art by Fi" and all triangles symbolize green for the nikau palms, yellow for the sand, blue for the waves - these are common for New Zealand scenery.

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Green

Straight ahead is one of the several petrol stations in Greymouth - none of them are really any cheaper than the others. To the right is a building that use to be a second hand shop but previously I think it was used for tourist activities like caving, rafting etc - now it stands empty but it is easily seen on the corner of the road with it's bright green colour. The owner did seem to have a good level of stock in her shop but I have an idea why it failed. The building apparently use to be part of the dairy co-operative industry that made milk or butter etc back in the old days and it's cool that the buildng is still standing.

Luckily here, and we are extremely grateful for the hot dry Summer we've had that we haven't had any bad weather like the north island has. The only event we had was a minor earthquake that slightly shook the house for about 5 seconds which was 6.1 on the richter scale in Wellington but it was apparently felt in various places around the country. It's not our first, I've sat through a few over the years in different places we've lived so unless they are huge then they don't really scare me.

Linking up with Weekend reflections and the Weekend roundup.

On the main street

At the end of one of main streets of Greymouth is this corner outside the movie theatre there is this nice seating area which looks out towards our favourite restaurant across the road. Is it just me or are movies becoming less popular these days in that alot of people are using streaming services in their own homes such as Netflix or Youtube etc?  I remember growing up going to the movies with my nana was a huge treat.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs. 

Granity Band Rotunda

In towns we visit I like to take photos sometimes while B is driving of things I see along the way. Last year when we took my parents to Westport we visited Granity which is on the outskirts of town. I like old historical buildings and noticed this old band rotunda. I can't find much about it but normally these were made around the turn of the 19th/20th century to honour military in the wars and so military band members could play their instruments on important days. Many towns around the country have these, there is also one in Westport and one in Greymouth.

We've been enjoying a very hot dry Summer so far and although we've had the odd bout of rain, water restrictions are still applying. Auckland and Northland have unluckily had storms and floods including one this week that started at a category 3 cyclone and ended with a category 2 - 5 being the highest. We can count ourselves lucky that we moved to the South Island just in time last April. Climate change, as people call it seems to have it's own mind about what it does.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Greymouth SPCA

Another local mural painted by Mark Haldane aka RAJA - this one outside the local SPCA which shows a mixture of animals next to a native Cabbage Tree. This is where we adopted our last 2 cats from - Floki and Tiger.

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Fat Pipi Pizzas

A street shot from Hokitika last time we were there in Spring. I haven't eaten there but they are right next to the beach so that would be an enticing feature. Fat Pipi Pizzas offer Seafood, Pizza, Pasta and Chicken meals - their menu looks good. For those who don't know what a Pipi is it's like a small type of shellfish that you can either eat raw or cooked. I use to eat them when I was a child but unfortunately these days with so many beaches hit by pollution it's just not that safe anymore.

Linking up with Weekend reflections and the Weekend roundup.

Summer nights

It's a normal scene seeing something like this on the way home from work over Summer. It normally doesn't get dark here until around 9.30pm-ish. In the Winter though the darkness starts to come through about 6.30-ish and that's when it's a dry cold mixed with black skies. I must admit Winters are much easier to deal with here as the cold isn't damp - it's actually manageable compared to Northland. 

The garden maintenance company I contacted never came by so B hired a trailer from a nearby rental place and we all spent a few hours hauling all the leftover branches and dead agapanthus plants we had pulled out into it. Luckily the local rubbish dump doesn't charge for green waste so we were able to take it there. Unfortunately our ride on lawn mower needs repairs done to it and my son has hurt his wrist so I pushed the lawnmower around for about an hour and managed to get the section tidy again.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs. 

Bye bye Chateau Tongariro

With much sadness last week I read that the historical Chateau Tongariro will be closing after 94 years due to being earthquake prone. Apparently DOC (department of conservation) had been discussing the lease with the owners and specialists had also been conducting site and seismic assessment due to plants to renovate the building. They found that underground shifts over time meant that the building was no longer safe so staff made the decision to close instead.

This building is iconic to New Zealanders and will be sorely missed. In case you didn't know this area is hugely volcanic with Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe nearby. 

When we lived in Tauranga 5 years ago we visited this spot and enjoyed the snow, something we don't normally see. I haven't been inside but I found these photos online which are not mine of some of the interior:

 

 

 

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The Coast

This mural is just around the corner and about 2 minutes up the road from home. Titled "12 Mile Beach" by Ivory Racho it shows the coastline around the west coast, in particular between Greymouth and Punakaiki.

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Eastern

Over Summer it's not often we've seen days like this. While the rest of the North Island is facing catastrophic rain and flooding we've had water restrictions put in place until finally earlier this week we got some much needed rain, but nothing like what they've had. I'm thankful and grateful we don't have to deal with what they've had to.

Linking up with Weekend reflections and the Weekend roundup.

Vote

I'm not sure what this sign was still doing up on a fence next to the Cobden Tavern as I think from memory the local elections ended quite some time ago. I know that when I saw it, it made me laugh as it almost sounded like Harley Davidson motorbikes but spelled differently.

The only update for us this week is that I've had to contact a 2nd garden maintenance company to take away some green waste we have in the backyard from when we took out some unwanted shrubs. The 1st company we contacted promised twice they would turn up then we never heard from them again so hopefully this lot are a bit more reliable. We have drizzle forecast for the rest of the week - rain is still needed here but I can't see it getting as hard and flooded as Auckland and Northland have it, in fact it's been handy being able to put my plants outside for a feed.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.