Good morning! Aoraki/Mt Cook finally greeted me from the fog after so many days.
Pardon my grooming as I just woke up.
Aoraki means "Cloud Piercer" in the Kāi Tahu dialect of the Māori language. The English name honours Captain James Cook, who first surveyed the islands of New Zealand in 1770.
The highest mountain in NZ was magnificent indeed!
We left for Hokitika in search for the famous whitebait, as recommended by a lady biker we met at the holiday park.
Who would have guessed their Hokitika's major industry is greenstone (jade).
I thought jade is from China or somewhere. I don't see ang mo wearing jade at all.
We found the famous whitebait dish at a little cafe, which tasted very similar to what my Ah Ma (grandmother) used to cook. We call it gng he (silver fish) back home. Ah Ma would add it into the omelette, which was heavenly.
I used to go to the wetmarket with my late Ah Gong (grandpa) to buy fresh gng he.
Those were the days. He really doted on me and bought me many things.
Oh, and we ordered a plate of macaroni and cheese too, which was just average.
We didn't have too much time and left after doing some greenstone shopping in a nearby shop.
We passed by Greymouth next, the largest town in the West Coast region. We went to New World supermarket to stock up, after being deprived of decent stuff from the deli. Those small town that we were at did not even have a deli, believe it or not.
The famous TranzAlpine train runs daily between Christchurch and here.
After leaving Christchurch, the train travels through the Canterbury Plains past the Waimakariri River along the Main South Line, to Rolleston. It then turns onto the Midland Line, which passes through the Southern Alps past the spectacular Waimakariri River gorge, via the Otira Tunnel and terminates in Greymouth, on the West Coast.
We followed the train going towards Christchurch direction in the car and the view was pretty good, I tell ya.
After so many days of driving long distance and sleeping in the vehicle, we decided to pamper our selves at Maruia Springs.
Maruia Springs Thermal Resort is nestled on the banks of the Maruia River, in a sheltered valley in the Lewis Pass, with a little touch of Japan.
When we lay on the bed, boy was it good!
It had been a while since we slept on something decent. We had proper pillows and duvet for a change (we were using pillows and blankets from Emirates).
We had the most beautiful Japanese Nabe (hotpot) at the Shuzan Japanese Restaurant. The salmon was super fresh and service was immaculate.
The dessert was to die for...
I managed to capture this picture before dusk, with a very full and satifisfied stomach.
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