When we set off from Carter's Beach, we drove straight at the mountains, which had all been named after scientists: Mt Einstein, Mt Pasteur, Mt Kelvin, Mt Euclid... The Kiwi's tend to name every little brook, creek and molehill. I'm sure they'd name every tree if they had the time.

We made a stop just before Charleston, a town that was a busy centre of goldmining from 1866-1914. It grew from 1200 people to 18.000 in three years. Mitchell's Gully Goldmine had its part in this goldrush.

The railtracks, pickaxes and carts looked like they had been abandoned in a hurry, then left to rust. All the tunnels were carved out by hand, which must have taken years! The first gold was discovered by two brothers. One day, while mining the cave, they saw two yellow eyes staring at them from the dark, giving them a mightly fright. In the end, it turned out to be their cow, who had fallen down a hole but was unharmed!

The mining stopped when WWI broke out and by 1930, Charleston had become little more than a ghost town, after processing over 4 million ounces of gold in about 50 years! We had a quick stop at Irimahuwhero viewpoint, which looked over the amazing rugged coastline. The (winding) road hugged the mountains on one side, and the cliff was on the other end...

The Pancake rocks and blowholes are geological formations of limestone rock which look like stacks of pancakes. They are being eaten away by the sea and this creates blowholes where the water splashes up, a bit like a geyser when it's high tide.

We walked along the (paved and busy) walkway but I wasn't all that impressed, to be honest. I suppose I've been spoilt and a couple of odd-shaped rocks just doesn't do it for me anymore...

We arrived in Greymouth's Top 10 around lunch, and spent the afternoon on practical stuff such as laundry and internet duties. We also had time for an icecream, a walk on the pebbled beach which was just around the corner, and a flipflop throwing competition (now there's a new Olympic sport), which I lost.

In the evening, I continued my losing streak at pool (Keiron whipping my ass completely though I made a few cool shots!) and then had dinner.