Another early start and another new driver, Gavin, who was filling in for another driver that was on leave. The weather was once again perfect as we left Nelson and stopped at this view-point looking back towards Nelson.
Looking back to Nelson as we head south to Greymouth
While on the other side lay the Murchison and Buller River gorge where the vegetation started changing from Pine Forest to Rain Forest.
there's something about snow-capped peaks
Our lunch stop was at the small coastal town of Westport, close to the prominent headland of Cape Foulwind where today you can walk along a trail to a seal colony althoughit was nothing compared to the seals I saw in Kaikoura.
panorama seal colony
Next stop was a place called the Truman Track. A short 5 minute walk from the state highway and you emerged from the forest at this pretty little bay.
panorama of Truman Beach
Looking the other way along the coast we saw some blow holes too, which apparently work best at low tide. Sadly, as you can see, we had left the sunshine of Nelson behind and the weather had clouded over again.
blow-hole on the Truman Track
Just a little further down the road we got to the main attraction, Punakaiki, famous for its Pancake Rocks and Blow-holes, however the blowholes here work best at high tide and so we didn’t see any but the Pancake Rocks were extraordinary to see.
the pancake rocks of Punakaiki
panorama of the Punakaiki pancake rocks and coastline
After that we carried on down the coast to Greymouth which was exactly that, grey. A lady back in Nelson, when I told her where our next stop was, remarked Greymouth, save your washing because there is nothing else to do there so that’s exactly what I did.
Awesome images!! I am amazed at the layers of rock. All are great. What an adventure!!