Day 15 Greymouth

The chief beauty about time
is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,
as perfect, as unspoiled,
as if you had never wasted or misapplied
a single moment in all your life.– Arnold Bennett

After a good night’s sleep we were looking forward to today’s drive right across the South Island to Christchurch. Before leaving Greymouth, we decided to have a little look around the town which is the largest town on the West Coast. However, large is a relative term because the whole of the Grey District around the town comprises only 14,200 people which accounts for 43% of the West Coast’s inhabitants. In June 2022, the town itself had an estimated population of 8,320.

We were fortunate to have a sunny day in Greymouth because its mean annual rainfall is high by New Zealand standards and is distributed relatively evenly throughout the year.

Judging from its prominent monuments, it seems that the town has had more than its share of unfortunate events.

Also on the waterfront is a memorial “In memory of those lost in coal mining incidents within the West Coast Inspection District” – unveiled by the Mayor at the time – Tony Kokshoorn – on 19 January 2013 on the anniversary of the 1967 Strongman Mine disaster. By coincidence we were looking at the memorial on the 19th of January 2023, 56 years after that tragic event.

The state-owned Strongman Mine was New Zealand’s largest underground coal mine. It had been open since 1939, and had an accident-free record. On 19 January, 1967, just after 10am, an explosion underground killed 19 of the 240 men who were working in the mine at the time.

The memorial also commemorates the lives of men lost in two other mining accidents. The deadliest mining accident in New Zealand’s history occurred at the Brunner mine on the 26th of March 1896 when an explosion tore through the mine at 9.30am killing almost half of Brunner’s underground work force. The final death toll was 65.

The most recent of the 3 accidents occurred at Pike River mine on the 19th of November 2010 when there was a large explosion caused by methane gases. A second explosion took place while the rescue attempt was underway and all 29 men still trapped in the mine died.

The South Island has an abundance of wild flowers and plants growing along the verges of all its roads which vary from one area to another. For quite a long distance towards Greymouth and away from it again, you can’t help noticing a very striking red flowering plant growing prolifically on both sides of the road like a red carpet.

The Montbretia plant originates in Africa and tropical South America and was introduced to New Zealand as an ornamental species. It was recorded as naturalised in 1935. It is a hardy and fast-growing member of the iris family whose corms and rhizomes multiply rapidly. For this reason, it is considered an invasive plant species in the UK and, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales, it is an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow this species in the wild.