I am finally up to date with the blog, hopefully I can keep it this way. I have just discovered one entry that didn’t get published. If you scroll down the page there is a “new” entry form the Cook Islands entitled “Driving Test”
We left Westport after a leisurely breakfast and a quick trip to the beach. The weather was cool, around 13C with a high overcast. The only plan we had to day was to visit Punakaiki and the pancake rocks. The trip was once again spectacular; the majority of the trip was along the coast road with the Tasman Sea on the right side. Todays trip was over much flatter terrain, and as usual we stopped at a number of lookouts.
Lyn got very excited when we saw the following sign post
- Penguin Crossing
Unfortunately the only penguin we saw was the one on the sign
We reached the pancake rocks and headed out to the walkway. The majority of sites we have been to have well maintained walking paths making for an easy stroll. Again a picture, or two, is worth a thousand words.
Pancake Rocks 1
Pancake Rocks 2
Pancake Rocks 3
Even today scientists are not sure what causes the layering of the rocks.
We carried on to the south heading towards Hokitika, there are many single track river bridges all over New Zealand and you get used to them fairly quickly, but today we came upon a new twist to the single track bridge. Not only did it carry cars, there was an active railway track on the bridge sharing the space with the cars. Luckily there were no trains around when we were there. About 5 miles down the road we came across the first of two roundabouts (traffic circles) with the railway line passing right through the centre of the roundabout.
We found the motel in the town of Hokitika, about a block from the beach. Just before reaching the town the heavens opened and it looks like the rain and high winds are going to be with us for a day or so. The town seems to be the centre for producing jade and gold jewellery from locally mined materials.