Day 81: Greymouth to Franz Josef (March 29, 2011)

Greymouth has exactly one thing to see: The History House Museum, which is one of those quaint small-town museums about the history of the area. I really should stop being surprised at how thorough most of these little museums are. This one only had a handful of artifacts from the area, but it had a ton of printed material (photos, letters, newspaper articles from the 19th century, etc.) documenting pretty much ever facet of area's history. Since the settlers arrived about 150 years ago, at least.


Queen Elizabeth II sat here.

It actually seemed more like a library with how much material they had. If I were a grad student in history, I might consider writing about Greymouth just because it has so much local material already gathered in one spot.

So I did learn that Greymouth used to be more than just the last stop on the railroad: It used to be a major shipping port (and still has shipping) and was and still is a major coal mining area. It also seems really prone to disasters. The museum had one room dedicated solely to floods, which apparently happen about every 5 years. And another room dedicated solely to coal mining accidents, of which there have been several in the past 150 years.

Around 1pm, I caught my bus to Franz Josef, another small town on the west coast. The drive wasn't too long and it was pretty scenic.

The most unusual thing I saw was this bridge, which not only has a single lane for traffic going both ways, but also serves at the railroad bridge. Our driver said that trains "usually" have the right of way. I wonder exactly who the trains are supposed to defer to?

Like Greymouth, Franz Josef seems comprised of mostly hotels, serving people who've come to tour the glacier. I considered staying here for two nights so I could hike it too, but since I only have sandals and summer clothes with me, I decided I'll just have to admire the glaciers from afar. If the clouds lift that is! Plus, I like this whole skip-winter-entirely thing I've got going on.

I'm posting this fairly early in the evening, so I can take advantage of a coffee shop's free wifi and still have time to go to the Hot Pools for a soak. Assume I'm having a wonderful and relaxing time in the pools, and I'll write again when I can.