The first blah

January 13th Started the day with a heli ride and landing on Fox Glacier ... amazing. Well we're in Greymouth and it's a pretty dull place. It's rather large with lots of semi industrial buildings and such but half are abandoned. The "town centre" is a couple blocks square. We arrived aroun 4pm and went for a walk after checking in. Most stores and businesses were closed and it wasn't even 5pm. Other than the McD's there's only a couple of places to eat. A very sad, old town. Funny thing is it's at the foot of the Grey river where it meets the Tasman Sea but no beaches or access to the sea ... very strange. The river had a walk with benches along it outside our hotel but the signs warn about sewage outlet and no swimming or eating of fish from it. Tomorrow will be a long day. We'll head out early, hitting Pancake Rocks on our way to Nelson. Helen & Graeme will be there and we plan on dinner together. The weather's still great so no complaints there and the country side is beautiful.