Fresh from our great train escape we're back in the Bongo and heading North once more. Our next stop is one of the West Coast's strangest sights - Punakaiki, home of the Pancake Rocks. Through some serious erosion the soft limestone rocks have eroded into what looks like stacks of pancakes (minus the maple syrup!) Beneath these there are also loads of blowholes carved into the caverns and at high tide the sea shoots up through them. Unfortunately we missed high tide, but got a great view of the rocks instead. A pretty cool stop all round.
Back in the van we make our way back to the tiny settlement of Barrytown. Luckily for us we have a reason to be here seeing as though there's only one "hotel" and the beach for company! We're here to make our very own knives. Cited as one of the most unique things we'll do in NZ, it's safe to say we're more than a little intrigued. The All Nations Hotel - our home for the night - is as quirky as you'd expect for a small town. We're greeted by Dougal, a Westie who apparently comes to the bar most days to hang out! After a few drinks with the lone barman we head to our spot in the carpark for the night.
An early morning start sees us at the home of Steve and Robyn, a local entrepreneurial couple who ditched their day jobs to run their knife-making business. In peak times they have groups of up to 20 people. Today there's just the 3 of us. Result. We begin with tea and biscuits - my kind of day! We're then given hideous oversized shirts, gloves and safety goggles - hmm, not so good!
We're then given a long piece of steel that we each forge into a rough blade shape, using a fire, anvil and hammer. We hardened the blade by chilling it in a bucket of cold water. Next we shaped the blade on a belt grinder. After drilling 2 holes we glued and pinned the bronze divider on. On to the handle - we drew then cut our wood, before again pinning and gluing it onto the metal. Our final task before lunch was to polyfill the gaps around the handle. Phew, what a morning! Lunch consisted of toasted sandwiches and axe throwing - non stop action here!!
The afternoon was much less strenuous as we sat in the front garden polishing the blades. Entertainment was provided by their dogs chasing the sheep - ah, country life! After much buffing, more than I thought necessary, we moved onto waxing the handle. Finally through with polishing our knives, Steve sharpened them while we cracked open the beers. A memorable day, filled with much laughter thanks to our free-speaking host! And a couple of beautiful knives to show for it too.
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