March 12 Supply Run (Day 167)
The weather today couldn’t decide to be foggy, sunny, or drizzly , so it did it all! A foggy morning, then a brief sunny stint convinced us we should get out, drive the hour to Greymouth for our last supply run, fill the gas tank and maybe do a little sightseeing.
As the clouds and fog came and went the color of the ocean changed dramatically, from a teal green to a dark blue!
One of the 3 free range chickens pecking in the driveway greeted us at the door when we left!
A little way down the coast the fog seemed to move in again, and the skies were dark towards Greymouth. It was high tide and the waves seemed like they were going to reach the road at times!
We went through Greymouth to a park on the south end of town hoping to see some mining history and do some walking around a Heritage Park, but it turned out to be a ‘wild west’ themed touristy Heritage Park, so we passed on that and went back into town. We got back into Greymouth around the time the Tranz-Alpine train was scheduled to arrive, and a light drizzle started! We hung around the station to watch the crowds and see the train again. I did more signboard reading and checked out the huge polished greenstone Jade boulder at the railway station while we waited for the train.
The greenstone or Pounamu is highly prized by the Maori and only found on the west coast of the South Island.
After the train pulled out, with loud horn blowing, we did our shopping and went to the fish shop to get more elephant fish, some perch and some seafood chowder. The same counter person gave us some smoked fish to add to the chowder! We got back home and prepared another wonderful fish dinner. Later, after dark, I went out on the deck before going to bed and saw light on the waves below us. I thought at first the moon must be out, or car headlights from the road below us were shining on the crests of the waves, but it was cloudy, no moon, and there were no cars. I woke Robert up and insisted he come out to see this, and we were mesmerized! The crests of the waves were glowing blue, suddenly bursting into blue light, sometimes far out from the beach, the line of blue light extended linearly as the waves crested! It couldn’t be caught in a photo though. Later Robert googled it and we learned about the luminous plankton that sometimes blooms in the ocean. The action of the waves seems to stimulate the plankton to glow blue or green. We were delighted to have been witnesses to this phenomenon!