Barrytown: Bone Carving, Greenstone, Pancake Rocks and Taking It All In

Heather as snug as the bedbug that's inside her sleeping bag with her. Barrytown Hotel.

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The west coast of the South Island of New Zealand is known as the "Wild West Coast". It's mostly rainforest and only around 6% of the entire country's population call it home. We spent 2 night in the Wild West in a small coastal village called Barrytown (population, 8, give or take). Barrytown is a former gold mining town and the bar (the only business in the village) dates back to one of the first pieces of gold discovered.

There's not a whole lot to do in Barrytown. They've devised some all day activity around making your own knife, and recently started a bone carving workshop. Heather has always wanted her own bone necklace so she took part in that workshop. Three hours later she was the proud owner of a bone necklace entitled "crossover". She did an excellent job too if I may say so.

Another thing that the west coast is known for is it's greenstone, or jade. It's not too difficult to find some onthe beach. We both picked up a few stones. Stones being heavy, we weren't all that interested in carting them around the world in our backpacks, so we just kept 2 small stones. Who knows, maybe they're worth thousands of dollars!

The beach at Barrytown was really nice. After dinner Heather and I decided to go for a walk. The tide was out so there was a lot of beach to walk along. For awhile we were the only people within sight. It was so nice to just "take it all in"and appreciate the beauty that was all around us. The ocean, the beach, the mountains behind us. "Take it all in"has become a bit of a slogan for us on this trip. It's something that we try to do as much as possible.

On the way to Barrytown you pass through the Paparoa National Park. Beautiful, beautiful area. The pride and joy of this park are it's Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. Of all the times that we've seen something but didn't have our camera to capture the moment, the pancake rockswere one of the best of them. I could have spent the whole day there just watching the ocean crashing against the rocks. I'd recommend this place to anyone as a must see in NZ.

See you in the next story,

Michael & Heather