FROM JUNCTION TO JACKSON

Kumara Junction, 25 kilometres south of Greymouth, marks the beginning of the Glacier Highway. We swing west but don’t get far before we pull into Needful Things, a quirky treasure trove of retro, its entrance marked by a blue Morris Minor. Inside, the store is brimming a cornucopia of antiques, books, clothing and curios. With no EFTPOS available, I hand over five dollars for a 1975 pressing of Fred Dagg’s Greatest Hits, and then scrounge another $10 for a small Crown Lynn swan. Owner/operator Jackie Hill is a great conversationalist, a native of Lancashire and generous to a fault.

Back in the Falcon we sweep down to the Serpentine bend where the Tasman Sea greets us with its opaque swells. The beach here marks the starting line of the annual Coast-to-Coast race, with the competitors running, kayaking and cycling to Christchurch’s Sumner beach. Personally, I’m more likely to look for jade or pounamu, and that can be found here among the greywacke beach pebbles. The more common green stone here though is the softer serpentine, which lends its name to the creek and beach.

The straights from Serpentine give us a grand view down to Aoraki/Mt Cook, the alps resplendent in a dusting of winter snow. The coprosma treeline to our left is like a long, groomed mound – every leaf that dares peek above the others blown off by the prevailing winds, trunks fixed in aeolian positions. We turn off left after Waimea Creek to Awatuna and sneak up the side road to Stafford. A goldrush settlement, in its heyday Stafford had a population of around 5000, with 37 hotels and 17 stores. Billie hadn’t heard of Stafford or its historic cemetery so I thought