17/12/23 Sun: Woke up
at 8.45am for cereal breakfast in the Airbnb before a nearly two-hour drive to
Hokitika, a small town by the west. *During the short-lived gold rush in the
mid 1860s, Hokitika was briefly the most populated city in New Zealand.* It
was almost constantly raining on the way though.
We had lunch at
Clocktower Café. I tried the West Coast whitebait sandwich (NZD 15.5)… 银鱼炒蛋三明治essentially lol. Apparently, whitebait is a West Coast
delicacy. It is a collective term for multiple species of Galaxiid, the larval
form of native fish and is made into patties. He had lamb fry with bacon (NZD
18.5)… 羊骚味很重.It was still cold and raining
when we arrived at Fitzherbert Court Motel just before 2pm but because the
receptionist was away, we waited in the car for a bit. We were given room six
for the one-night stay (S$115.77 for two pax) and the room was quite big. He
napped a bit before we went for our trek at Hokitika Gorge trail.It was drizzling as we
walk to and fro, which took about 1.5 hours. Was a bit worried about sandflies
at first because West Coast is known for sandflies. There are 13 species and
only females bite. Maori legend said God created Fiordland but the stunning
landscape was so beautiful people stopped working to stare. A goddess got angry
at the unproductive people that she created the sandfly to bite them and keep
them moving on lol.Luckily, we were not bitten
or probably didn’t come across them at all. On our drive back, there was
flooding on the path and our car almost got stuck in the flood but phew, we managed
to scrape through it.Headed to Dulcie’s Fish
and Chips which was quite well-known in the country. We were given a random
fish meat with one scoop of fries (NZD 11.2)... already the cheapest one can
find in New Zealand it seems. The fries were unsalted which was good and the fish
was fresh but a bit tough.Drove a bit further
down to Sunset Point but the sky was gloomy, so definitely no sunset for us.
There were also turbulent waves at the part where the river flowing into the
sea met the sea water… would not want to be caught in that.Drove to Fat Pipi Pizzas
and we bought a medium-sized smoked salmon pizza (NZD 25). There was this cute angmoh
girl with her parents who played with us as we were waiting for our pizza.
Also bought blueberry
and lime cider, teriyaki chicken with avocado sushi and berry smoothie (NZD
17.8) at New World supermart at 8.15pm. Had our dinner at home half an hour
later and I thought the blueberry lime cider was a bit sour. The salmon pizza was
not bad but we didn’t liked the crust. *After the “bad omen” on the day we
arrived, I was too scared to go to the glowworm dell nearby because it was next
to a cemetery. Superstitious keke.*
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