Hokitika Day Two

January 27, 2010

So I woke up bright and early in Hokitika and after a nice shower I headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  The restaurant was little more than a diner, but they had exactly what I wanted: pancakes.  You may not remember, but back on my birthday I wanted pancakes for breakfast and the only place in town with pancakes was all out.  So my new goal became to get pancakes after I reached my goal of running for 35 minutes straight. By the time I made it to Hokitika I’d surpassed that goal and I made it to 39 minutes.  But I still hadn’t taken myself out for pancakes.

So I had my pancakes finally!  Then I went to the real grocery store.  When I packed for this short trip I left a little room to bring groceries back with me to Fox Glacier.  My idea was to go through the produce section and buy every kind of vegetable and fruit that I like.  I went crazy!  I bought nectarines, apricots, kiwis, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, and avocado.  I would have bought blueberries but I didn’t think they’d last the trip back to Fox Glacier.  

When I checked out of my hotel I left my luggage with them to pick up later.  The lady at the desk suggested I go to the free greenstone talk at one of the Jade shops in town.  Jade is found in this region and they’ve really turned it into a tourist activity.  I personally don’t think Jade is that pretty, but I learned a lot about during the talk.  I also stopped in the used bookstore on the way and traded in some books for a new book. 

At noon I met Maureen at the bus stop.  She had also planned a trip to Hokitika and our paths crossed for a couple of hours.  We got coffee together.  I ordered an iced coffee.  Apparently an iced coffee here isn’t just hot coffee poured over ice.  My coffee came with whip cream and a scoop of ice cream in it!

Maureen and I walked on the beach and took pictures of each other next to the driftwood sculptures.  They were having a special festival on the beach of driftwood sculptures.  The sculptures were very creative!  The running, screaming man was the best.  It looked like he was yelling at someone across the ocean!  It was great to share this experience with Maureen.

We also just sat on a piece of driftwood and watched the ocean waves roll in.  I wanted to soak it all up and enjoy it.  I knew that in a few hours I was going back to Fox Glacier.  I wasn’t ready to go.  I wanted to just keep watching the ocean.

Eventually Maureen and I said our goodbyes and I caught the bus back home.  Once I was on the bus I was a lot more excited to be going home.  It’s nice to have a place I can call home here in a foreign country.  I was surrounded by tourists on the bus and I felt like a local!  Sometime it’s nice to go to a place that you’ve never been to before and sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where everything is familiar.