JACKSON RETREAT — ROSS , 9th March, 2021.

Didn’t get away until 10.00am as I didn’t have enough reception to complete last nights Blog and had to get it finished before we left. When we awoke this morning the clouds were really low over the mountains.  Once we were on our way they started lifting but the sun never came out. We continued towards the west coast  heading for Hokitika where we stopped and made some lunch down on the waterfront. Had a walk along the foreshore along to the  river mouth. After a couple of hours pottering around the area continued driving down the coast for about 10 mins and turned off to Lake Mahinapua to have a look. Left there and  continued on our way to Ross an old  mining  town.

Done away with the red dots on the map, now going to have to be  black dots as to where we stay over night. Tonight we  are on the west coast at Ross for one night. Tomorrow heading to Franz Joseph and will spend some time there before continuing onto Fox Glacier for two nights. Go ETNZ.Hope we can find a TV..

I can’t believe it I had just finished my blog all ready to post and we had a crash in the camp wi fi system and I lost the rest of the blog, photos and all the captions. I will endeavour to do it all in the morning before we leave but can’t guarantee it.

Here we go again early Wednesday morning still dark.🙃😔

We are heading to the west coast. Clouds still low over the hills. Had our first peep of the sea as we came over the hills.

Arrived in Hokitika in time for lunch which I made down  by the river mouth.  Then we had a walk along the waterfront. 

Town clock.

This walkway runs right along the beach.

So much driftwood all along the beach.

A penguin. People have been doing all sorts of artwork out of the driftwood. 

I think that this could be a Platapuss .

High fashion in Hokitika.

River mouth. Reading about the river and its bar back in the late 1880’s there was approximately one sailing ship caught on this bar every 3 weeks. 

This is the bridge we crossed when we left Hokitika.

Left Hokitika and ten minuets down the coast we turned off and drove  2km down this one way loop road to Lake Mahinapua. Lovely area which has been developed into a reserve by the lake. When you leave, the loop road continues back to the main road.

Lakeside

There’s that chap again. We were going on a walk  that lead to a swimming beach but then we came to a Y intersection on the track but no sign to say which way to walk. so we decided to turn round and go back.

So we decided to turn around and walk back again. As who knows we could have ended up  in the back of no where.

We have now arrived in the small town of Ross. This is a copy of the layout of the Top 10 Holiday Park where we will stay the night.

Hooked up to our site, sat down and had a coffee looking out to sea. Still cloudy but no wind at all. Apparently they have been having high winds here. I asked for a particular site nearer to the beach but was told we couldn’t have that one as the  high winds brought the  sand in and we would probably need a tow out......

Looking south along the beach.

The sun decided to come out for about half hour before it clouded over again.

He’s back..Looking back to the hills from our site.

Looking through the from the front seats. The bed goes up to the ceiling during the day. You can see the duvet along the top.

Then you push a button and it comes down to the bed.. great system.

Sitting in the lounge/dining end looking over the table to the cab. Note how the front seats swivel around  to make comfy seats to sit in. Note I asked that chap in for a cuppa!!