Snow, Seagar's & a slight detour

Well our road trip to the West Coast got off to a slow start. Having flown into Christchurch, we spent the night at my aunt and uncle's apple orchard near Swannanoa, then we visited the Oxford Farmers' Market (to stock up on pork pies, Cornish pasties and fresh-baked pretzels), then we stopped in at Jo Seagar's delightful cafe in Oxford for lunch... then we finally hit the road headed for Hokitika. The snow was falling when we headed into Porter's Pass, so then we had to stop and catch a few snowflakes and take a few photos and generally laugh and frolic about like giddy Aucklanders for half an hour. Wish we'd packed a sled!
Then of course, the snow started falling quite heavily. We were forced to stop to put on the car's snow chains, but despite the best efforts of three girls all looking coy and helpless, even the grit spreading guys couldn't get the darn things on our rental car, so we were forced to abandon our plans to drive through Arthur's Pass and backtrack through Oxford to take Lewis Pass instead.
I'm glad for the detour, because it meant we went past Black's Point on the outskirts of Reefton instead. We featured the intrepid gardeners of Black's Point in NZ Gardener a couple of years ago so it was fun to check out the little settlement for ourselves.
Reefton was adorable too. Shame it was also frrrrrrreeezing. (Time for me to toughen up I think!) We finally got into Hokitika at about 7pm, then headed down to Stumpers last night for a hearty meal of lamb shanks and ale. Coasters love their beer, and while we're on the coast, so will we!