ca. 76 km
The weather was fine when we started in Harihari for the trip to the first big town on the West Coast - Hokitika. We passed the big Wanganui River, Lake Ianthe and some more rivers until we reached the little town of Fergusons. Lots of bikers were so enthusiastic when thea described us the West Coast route. Well, it's really fine here when there is no rain, but New Zealand has definately nicer routes. So don't expect so much and you will not be disappointed.
We continued our road and reached the coastline for the first time after some days. The route turned back to inland a little bit, and soon we entered the town of Ross and took a break. It was a nice and warm day at the West Coast. There was nothing special in Ross, so we decided to continue our road again. After crossing the Totara River we reached the coastline again in Ruatapu. The road follows the coast to Takutai, and many signes and advertisements showed us, we are approaching Hokitika.
We just had to cross the big Hokitika river to reach the town. We found our Camp, the Hokitika Holiday Park, at the corner Stafford Street / Livingstone Street near the river. We were ahead of our schedule, so we decided to stay there for another day to explore the gold mines. We were instruced in gold panning. We really found two very little pieces and a big shrimp, but gave it all back to mother nature. The work was hard, and our backs were aching. Finally our guide showed us how the gold was treated with mercury after it was found.
