The day before the third stage of our tour we had a wonderful rest day in Hokitika. We visited the coast side and the little town, saw a lot of gulls and dead wood at the beach. We also had a nice lunch in a restaurant with lots of vegan options including gluten-free stuff. In the evening we cooked a meal inside the public space of our camping ground and relaxed in the warmth of the living room. Reading some books about New Zealands flora and fauna made us even more excited to be on this trip. After a relaxed night the weather was quite unstable in the morning and we hurried up with packing our stuff together to get off early in the direction of Ross, further following the West Coast Wilderness Trail.

Rainy start to Ross

It was windy and rainy on our way to Ross. We passed nice jungle tracks via the trail. Once in a while we stopped to visit some of the exotic birds around us. After the jungle part we ended on a way accompaning an old train track. Mentally and physically this was really exhausting as the path was straight for hours and the wind was tough. So, when we arrived in Ross we needed a nice lunch and got it in a tiny comfortable cafe (Roddy Nugget Cafe) along the main street.

Rain again…

The weather got even worse after our lunch break and we did not make it to our target campsite. Instead, we checked our options in Harihari – a really small village on the Highway 6. Despite the awful weather we decided to stay on the campsite of the Hotel Harihari. Not long after we built up everything the rain got so heavy that we went into the restaurant for dinner and watched our tent in the floods outside. However, there was a hot shower and after a good speights beer we could sleep well – even in our floating tent 😉.

Route