It was another beautiful morning when I set out from Franz Josef and there was the prettiest low mist over Lake Mapourika.
I’d only been driving for a few minutes before I had to pull over to breath it all in. And then I pulled over again. It was so very still. But if you waited long enough, you could see the mist and clouds gently moving and each moment was slightly different from the one before. It really wasn’t easy to walk away. But I knew I should get going. I had a 217km drive ahead of me that would take me along the West Coast.
As I drove on, the weather gradually rolled in. I did manage to get in two more almost perfect lake stops, but by the time I had reached Hokitika, it was pouring. I’d visited Hokitika Gorge when I’d first arrived in the South Island and had hoped to visit again. But the weather was dirty. So dirty I didn’t even get out of the car. I didn’t even pick up a coffee for the road. I kept going.
I drove through Nine Mile...
...and past Barrytown.
Until I reached the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki. Which are another example of New Zealand’s dynamic landscape. It was seismic action that gradually lifted these 30 million year old layers of limestone from the seabed. And rain, wind, and seawater that sculpted the rocks into really quite bizarre and beautiful shapes.
It was still raining so I got myself layered-up and waterproofed and took the short walk to the rocks. The tide had only just turned but the blow holes were still pumping and spraying. And garnering oohs and aahs from the small handful of us gathered there. I didn’t hang about too long but headed off to the only place open, The Tavern, for a bowl of hot chips and a bottle of stout. Before heading back to my little bach on the beach just in time to see the sun go down.
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