November 25th - Got out of Dodge!

Since the weather was turning rainy we thought we'd get out of Dodge... (meaning head off to Greymouth to the Monteith's brewery.)  There were soooo many relentless sand flies.  They say "the wind and the rain keep the sand flies down."  It's like they could feel the rain coming and were using every last second to frantically and viciously eat our flesh before then.  I was really missing my *Asian friends.  (Gladys, Shirley and Cesar to name a few...) We encountered a few more biters on the road and at one point Ryan said, "I'm sure glad you're the more Asian one of us."  The bugs were so bad in the morning (still at the $8/per night camp ground) that I didn't even want to get changed there so we packed up our tent and gear pretty quick and high-tailed it to McDonald's for our first NZ *fast food experience.  (I got changed in the bathroom.)  I had a sausage 'n' egg McMuffin meal with cappuccino, and it wouldn't be me if I didn't customize my order by getting it double toasted with lettuce, tomato and mayo.  It was quite good but I did notice that their English muffin was a little smaller however their hash brown seemed longer than ours.  Ryan had the English Brekkie Wrap meal which came with sausage, scrambled egg, tomato and bbq sauce.  "Not bad" he said.

Ryan being the mechanic felt that JCDV needed a jack and tire iron in the event that we got a flat so off we went to The Warehouse before starting our next road trip.  We drove almost straight to Westport (about 2 hours) save for some gas and snacks (Chicken flavor chips, again awesome!)
We read that in Westport there is a Seal Colony and their birthing season is right about now so we drove a little out of the way and found another black sand beach.  If you walk about 15 mins up a guided path there is a wooden lookout where we saw about 10 or so seals. 


Some big, some small that could have been babies.  Not quite close enough to snap any pics of the seals but we did get some of the scenery. 
 





















Back on the road there was a sign that read "Watch for penguins for next 5km".  Exciting!!!  We were on the look-out but sadly we didn't see any penguins, however we did see Pancake Rocks and some dolphins too.   So cool!!!
 
                         

Finally made it to Greymouth after a long windy (as in squiggly) and windy (as in blustery) drive.  Very happy to be sleeping in a hotel, no shower restrictions and no blasted sand flies.   :D  We tried to book two nights but it seems there are no rooms available after tonight.  The agent advised that I should try calling in the morning to speak with the manager though. For dinner we found another Brew House in town called Speights Ale House where we enjoyed meat pie and lamb shank with our 8 beer sampler.

                        

Then we had a nice chat with Ryan's parents but not before having the longest shower of my life...because I could!   :)
  

*When I lived a sheltered life in Ontario, we never really went camping but we still had mosquitoes and I got bit many times.  However in BC, most of my friends are Asian and we've gone camping a fair bit.  There are always tons of mosquitoes but they don't come near me.  My friends, no matter Chinese, Japanese or Korean with their sweet smelling blood would finish off the weekend with welts the size of cookies on their arms and legs.  I always came away unscathed.   Not a single prick or itch.  Those days are gone out here.  I've got no suit of Asian Armour to protect me.  It's every 'almost-Asian' for herself.  The bug spray only slows them down a little.

*Btw, NZ's Fast Food commonalities are Burger King, KFC, Subway, Starbucks (duh), Domino's.  I'll let you know if we come across any more.