Greymouth On A Saturday Night

Left: Downtown Greymouth on a Saturday night.


Pretty slow! (Population 13,500).

I took a 4.5 mile walk that took 4 hours to complete, circling the airport, getting lost downtown, doing a bit of blogging (at the Regent Theatre's I-office), and wandering along the motel strip along High Street.

Saturday night, and the louts are out. Walking along a very broad street, I swung into the street to give wide berth to a man and his dog (friendly), and a passing motorist in a van shouted "Get out of the road!" Even though the road was so wide it could hold four lanes of traffic!

Saw two dances in progress, one at the Anglican Church, and one at a private hall. Walked up to one dinner/dance and spied in: a big Pacific Islander was dancing with a woman in a blue evening dress - pretty scary!

The fellow at the convenience store said "There are four parties I know of tonight, but I'm going home before any of them show up here." I asked if the bank was open Sunday and he said "Should be, but people often just close up to do their own hobbies on the weekend. Not me. I have to make a living."

He helped to get a deal on the 1.5L diet soda: half-price with the 1.5L size mineral water.

Auto exhaust smells quite a bit different here than in the U.S.: a lot like burning rubber. At first I thought it might be because someone was burning rubber tires somewhere, but the burning tire smell can be found even in the country, as long as cars are present. I suppose the petroleum here comes from Indonesia, but likely it has to do with the method of refining (California with its restrictive regulations, and all that).

By the time I got back to the Alpine Rose, I was exhausted!