February 8:
After a long day on the road, we opt to just settle in and have a lazy day. Our Greymouth campground is located steps away from a really cool rock covered beach. There is a pretty nice playground here with a bouncy pillow that the boys are digging and you can rent four wheel bikes to ride around the camp compound. We take a short walk on the beach and discover there is an airport with landing strip very close by. We can see small planes and helicopters landing nearby....that is neat. After our walk, it is down to school work. We are working on creative writing and are doing a series called "Picture This" where we will show the kids a photo and they have to come up with a list of adjectives, analogies and verbs that describe the picture. From those words, they need to write a poem, narrative or feeling about the image. It has turned out to be a fun way to get them thinking about writing and making it interesting to read. We work for a couple of hours - struggling with math -and then we are free to enjoy the warm sunshine. We plan to drive into a closeby town called Hokitika, where we understand there are glow worm caves that you can see for free. We are also planning to have a fire on the beach tonight and cookout our dinner there. Busy
afternoon for a lazy morning. We eat lunch and head into Greymouth to walk around the town. Cute town, but not all that interesting. We return to the campground to get ready for our afternoon adventure. Hudson is too tired and doesn't want to go. He has also hurt his ankle and wants to stay put for some R&R by himself. We pack up the car at around 5:30 and head down the road to Hokitika. We arrive in town by the time all of the shops have closed, except for one which we enjoy for a while. Both Annie and Sam have found treasures that they may want to purchase. We enjoy speaking with the shop-keeper's daughter who is a jeweler that makes really great pieces from the local Pounamu (New Zealand Jade). She sells her work in galleries and she shows us her studio which is located behind the shop. As we are leaving, she suggests that we visit a local gorge called Lake Kaniere Gorge. She says they have "turquoise"
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Turquoise Water
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water in the lake there and we are very curious to see that....so we are off. But, not before a visit to the local beach where there are a wonderful assortment of driftwood sculptures on the beach. This is a cool little town. We decide to go ahead and purchase our dinner stuff in case the grocery is closed when we get back to Greymouth. We drive to the gorge through some of the most wonderful scenery I have seen here. It is perfectly flat with the greenest pastures you have every seen and the mountains rising in the distance - beautiful, but it takes longer than we thought and the light is starting to fade in the sky. When we arrive we are in awe of the amazingly beautiful scenery. We hike down to a swinging bridge to get a better look at the canyon and the truly -Turquoise- blue water. We cannot stay long as we need to get to the glow worms at dusk, so we hurry back to our car and make a mad dash back to the Glow Worm caves. By now it is nearly 9:00 and we are starting to feel like we need to get back to Hudson, but we cannot see the glow worms until it is dark. We stay long enough to see them come out - tiny pinpoints of light stuck to the side of the cave wall....before long the walls will literally glow like stars in the sky. We see the majesty of the glow worms and then pile back into the car and drive back to Greymouth. We arrive around 9:45 and begin to make our fire on the beach. There is a full moon in the sky that helps illuminate the beach and helps us find our way. I make tin foil packages with meat and veggies and we have corn to put directly onto the coals. When I get to the beach I see the boys have made a wonderful fire and are really excited to be little savages on the beach. We cook and enjoy a great meal, albeit late, before returning home and trying to settle down for the night. This was a really fun day!
After a long day on the road, we opt to just settle in and have a lazy day. Our Greymouth campground is located steps away from a really cool rock covered beach. There is a pretty nice playground here with a bouncy pillow that the boys are digging and you can rent four wheel bikes to ride around the camp compound. We take a short walk on the beach and discover there is an airport with landing strip very close by. We can see small planes and helicopters landing nearby....that is neat. After our walk, it is down to school work. We are working on creative writing and are doing a series called "Picture This" where we will show the kids a photo and they have to come up with a list of adjectives, analogies and verbs that describe the picture. From those words, they need to write a poem, narrative or feeling about the image. It has turned out to be a fun way to get them thinking about writing and making it interesting to read. We work for a couple of hours - struggling with math -and then we are free to enjoy the warm sunshine. We plan to drive into a closeby town called Hokitika, where we understand there are glow worm caves that you can see for free. We are also planning to have a fire on the beach tonight and cookout our dinner there. Busy 
afternoon for a lazy morning. We eat lunch and head into Greymouth to walk around the town. Cute town, but not all that interesting. We return to the campground to get ready for our afternoon adventure. Hudson is too tired and doesn't want to go. He has also hurt his ankle and wants to stay put for some R&R by himself. We pack up the car at around 5:30 and head down the road to Hokitika. We arrive in town by the time all of the shops have closed, except for one which we enjoy for a while. Both Annie and Sam have found treasures that they may want to purchase. We enjoy speaking with the shop-keeper's daughter who is a jeweler that makes really great pieces from the local Pounamu (New Zealand Jade). She sells her work in galleries and she shows us her studio which is located behind the shop. As we are leaving, she suggests that we visit a local gorge called Lake Kaniere Gorge. She says they have "turquoise" 
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