Month: February 2026

February 3, 2026

It rained all night and was still raining when we got up. It was a 4-hour drive to our next destination, Haast. The weather went from bad to worse as the drive took us into the heart of the storm. The road climbed out of the flats near the ocean into the glacier country: Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier. The road was very twisty in that area with many one-lane bridges. The scenery was lush rain forest. The trees were drinking plenty of rain today! In the open areas the wind was fierce at times with rain pouring down almost horizontally toward us. It was not a fun drive.

Fortunately it was the third time we had driven this road, so we had already done our sightseeing in much nicer weather in years past. We felt no need to stop anywhere, other than short bathroom breaks in Franz Joseph and again in Bruce Bay. The rain started to let up after we drove back down to the ocean at Bruce Bay, and it finally quit when we were within about a half hour drive from Haast.

Our accommodation was a one-bedroom apartment at the Bay Road Motels, about a 10-minute drive south of Haast. It had a small kitchen and very good wifi reception, which was important since there was no cell phone service in this remote area. It was in a very quiet and peaceful location.

After we checked in, we drove back north into Haast to the visitor center to obtain some information on the local hikes and things to do in the area. We were hoping to arrive before it closed at 4:30, but we did not take into account some road work that had up to 20-minute delays. Unfortunately we got stuck with the maximum delay which had us arrive after closing time. Fortunately I was able to find most of the information that I was looking for on the hikes posted just inside the windows, so I took pictures of all of the descriptions.

I walked a short trail behind the visitor center and encountered a kereru bird (New Zealand pigeon) that decided to perch in a tree very close to me.

The weather was clearing nicely, and there were large patches of blue sky. I took some photos of the surrounding mountains.

We decided to check out Haast Beach. We found a small pullout just across the street from the Haast Beach Motel that had a path to the beach. A sign in front was marked Private Property - restricted access, please keep the gate closed. A fence ran down each side of the path. We debated what "restricted" meant, and we thought it was just a warning to stay on the path. We found out the hard way this was not the case: after we returned from the beach, the owner met us and scolded us that we were indeed on private property. He was not very nice at all. I apologized profusely and he calmed down a bit. Afterwards Heinrich found the path on a map, and it was marked for public use. We speculated the owner just did not want any outsiders to park across from his hotel. But seriously, if he wanted to keep people out, why not just put a lock on the gate?

The beach itself was quite nice with some gray sand and driftwood. The entire area was remote with very few people.

Back at the apartment we had chicken and pasta with honey mustard sauce and a salad for dinner.

February 2, 2026

The morning was heavily overcast with occasional sprinkles. We drove into town and decided to visit The National Kiwi Centre. We spent a couple of hours indoors viewing different varieties of fish, turtles, frogs, huge eels, and two kiwi birds. We were there for the morning eel feeding, and I had the opportunity to feed and pet the eels. Many of the eels in the tank were 80 to 100 years old.

Next came the kiwi feeding. The two kiwi birds had been hiding earlier in the day, but they popped out after the food trays were filled. One of the birds became quite active and was hopping and jumping back and forth.

Next we visited the New World supermarket across the street and stocked up on food for the next few days. Then we returned to the kiwi centre one more time to watch the noon eel and kiwi feeding.

We drove back to our cabin, had sandwiches for lunch, and then returned to Greymouth to swap out the rental car. The new car was ready for us just as we arrived. It was exactly the same model and color as the old car, so I was glad to be able to keep the hybrid. We did end up getting a discount of a few days off of the rental car price as compensation for all of the trouble.

The weather in Greymouth was partly cloudy and better than in Hokitika where a storm was approaching from the south. We drove to the nearby town of Kumara to do some local sightseeing. We took a short hike to Londonderry Rock, a huge glacial erratic. It was a nice walk through the moss covered trees and ferns inside the rain forest.

Next we went on another short hike to an old 1930's swimming pool site.

Nearby, I went on the Taylors Hill Walk, which was a short loop trail that climbed to a nice view of the river valley below.

We returned to the cabin and grilled ribeye steaks for dinner.

I spent some time watching the local farm animals that were roaming around in their pens directly across from our cabin.

There was no sunset or glow worm viewing for us since it started raining shortly before dark.

February 1, 2026

The weather forecast was for sunny all day, so we got up early and took the 1.5 hour drive to Arthur's Pass. The road to the pass had stunning views in the morning light. We drove over the Otira Viaduct and passed under the Reid Falls Aqueduct. I was able to take some nice photos along the drive. We stopped at a viewpoint of the Otira Viaduct.

We continued on to Arthur's Pass Village, where we spent the morning walking around the town. We were looking for kea birds which we had seen in abundance during our visit in 2023. But none were to be found at the place we had watched them previously, since there was no longer a dumping ground of food scraps for them to feed on. Much better for the birds not to get fed, but I missed seeing them.

We stopped at Arthur's Pass Store to buy chicken cranberry pies that were delicious and my favorite New Zealand pie so far. We sat outside to eat our pies, and we heard kea birds in the distance. Then we spotted a few hanging outside the front of the store, hopping around the tables where the customers were eating their food. Fortunately everyone was being good about not feeding them. Heinrich sat on one of the benches near a table to take some videos. A kea bird came closer and closer to Heinrich, and then suddenly it grabbed the bag of trash from our pies and flew off! It then handed the bag off to another kea.

After that bit of fun, we decided we would spend the afternoon taking hikes to Devils Punchbowl Falls and the Otira Valley Track for some mountain views. We walked back to our car to drive to the trail head, and that's when the day went south, in a bad way. We had a key fob to electronically unlock the rental car. Heinrich pressed the button and nothing happened. And even though there was a physical key that we used to start the engine, there was no keyhole on any of the doors to unlock the vehicle. What to do? We walked over to the nearby visitor center to ask for help. Maybe someone there might help us figure out if there was a manual method of unlocking the car. A very friendly ranger offered to take a look. Heinrich found a way to open the key fob to extract the coin battery inside. The ranger happened to have the same type of coin battery, and he gave it to us to swap out. I thought for sure that would fix the problem, but no! It still didn't work.

The ranger suggested we do a Google search to see if there might be some information online. I found a video that showed a method of unlocking a similar model. Sure enough, our car happened to have the same design. On the driver's side door there was a tiny slot located underneath the handle. Heinrich inserted the key into that slot, which allowed him to pop off part of the handle. Underneath was a keyhole to unlock the car.

The car was still drivable, but there was no way we were going to stop anywhere for an extended time and leave the car unlocked with all of our stuff inside. Even though most of our stuff was in the room back in Hokitika, there was enough still inside that we would worry about. So I got out the rental car agreement from the glove box and found a phone number to call for help at the agency. It connected to one of those automated lines where I had to press a series of buttons before finally getting to talk to a real person. I ended up getting routed to roadside assistance that offered to send someone out to try to fix it. Estimated wait time was a half hour to an hour and a half. And there was no guarantee it would get fixed.

This did not seem like an ideal option, especially since the car was still drivable and we weren't stranded. I tried once again to call someone directly at the agency, this time using a different phone number. The agent I talked to suggested that we drive the car to Greymouth to swap out for a different car. But she didn't know if they had any cars available. She said she would call them to check and then she would call me back. Twenty minutes elapsed with no phone call. At this point we had been dealing with the situation for almost two hours. I did a Google search and found that the agency at Greymouth closed for the day at 4 PM: it was already after 2 PM and Greymouth was over an hour drive away. I called the agency one more time, talked to a different person who told me yes - we should just leave and go to Greymouth. And since roadside assistance had also not bothered to show up by this time, I called them back to cancel the assistance.

We left immediately to drive to Greymouth -- waving bye bye to the nice waterfall out the window that I had wanted to see close up. At least we had already done that hike in 2019 so it would have been a repeat. But still… it was not fun to leave on an absolutely gorgeous afternoon there. I knew we would not try to return the next day because the weather forecast was for cloudy and afternoon rain.

We did stop briefly to snap a photo of the Otira Viaduct and other bridges on the other side of the road as we drove back down the mountain.

We arrived in Greymouth shortly after 3 PM and then had trouble finding where the rental car agency was located. Google Maps had directed us to a rental car return area near the train station, but we weren't seeing any signs for Apex Car Rentals. Then I received a phone call, finally from the first agent that I had talked to that was supposed to call me back… after 2 hours had elapsed. She said she had repeatedly tried to call the agency in Greymouth but nobody there was answering the phone. I told her, we are already there, how about helping us find the agency? She said she thought it was inside the train station. We finally found it there after several minutes of wandering around. There was one woman who was manning all of the counters for various rental agencies. And guess what, no cars were available that day. She did have one car but it was not a hybrid, and that was unacceptable. Our options were to return the next afternoon or wait until we got to Queenstown a few days later. Since we didn't have much planned for the following day due to the bad weather forecast, we told her we would return at around 2 PM for the swap.

It was still a beautiful day in Greymouth, so I looked for other options to spend a few hours sightseeing in the area. And I found the Point Elizabeth Walkway. I remembered this was something I had put on the agenda in 2019 and again in 2023 but both times we had skipped it due to weather or time constraints. We drove to the trail head, and I had brought a small backpack that I stuffed all the valuables inside that I really cared about. It was about a 2.5 mile round trip hike up a bluff and through a beautiful tropical forest with ocean views.

We drove back to Hokitika, had scrambled eggs and potatoes for dinner, and then walked out to the beach to watch the sunset which was much better than the previous day.

At the end of the day we walked over to the dell to watch the glow worms one more time.