Gray Day in Greymouth

I rode the bus for 8 hours today from Wanaka. Greymouth is as I expected, grey and raining, but the hostel is dry and warm. I spent the past week camping and tramping with a friend of mine, Vinny from the UK. We drove from Dunedin to Wanaka, which is in the center of New Zealand up in the mountains. We camped beside a lake with great views and an awesome swimming beach. We also spent three nights doing some tramping on what is called the Matukituki Valley Track. The first day of the tramp we followed a steel-blue river up into a gorge where it is fed by a gigantic glacier. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, so we were in essence hiking right into the middle of a cloud. It was quite wet up there. When we made it back to the bottom of the valley, the wind was so intense that the falling rain fell sideways and felt like tiny bullets hitting our faces. The brim of my cowboy hat was completely folded over my head as we trudged down the path and decided the hike wasn't worth our while on that day. We headed back to the car with the wind at our backs and camped for the night. The next day was a completely new world, the sun shining and the wind nonexistent. We made our way up into a valley surrounded by snow-capped peaks and filled with cows and set up camp. On the way back from the tramp we had a bit of car trouble, but a disaster was avoided, and we made our way back to Wanaka. The next day was today, and I left for Greymouth where I am now. Tomorrow I will catch a train into the mountains again to a national park called Arthur's Pass. There is a hostel up there where I will spend a few nights while doing some day hikes in the park. After that I am heading to the Northern coast to a city called Nelson which I hear is the sunniest in New Zealand. Should be nice after this place. From there I am going to WWOOF at a place called Port Ligar (http://www.waterfallbay.co.nz/location.html). It is a family farm as well as a place for vacation accomadation (hence the website). Cheers for now.