Punakaki and the Pancake Rocks

The weather was not a lot better on Sunday morning, and I continued north with a brief stop in Franz Josef for gas and some food. The lady who ran the place that I stayed at in Fox suggested that I go to Punakaki about 80 km north of Greymouth, and it made for a short day of driving but it all worked well. When I called for a reservation I was warned to bring anything I planned to cook, as there is no shop in the settlement and no ATM machine. There was a decent tavern. It was raining but showerier when I arrived and the “Beach Hostel” was about 30 meters from the Tasman Sea and the balcony afforded great views of the considerable surf. 

Punakaki is famous (well that might be a superlative) or well known in NZ for the “Pancake Rocks and blowholes. 

They were located about a 15 minute walk from the hostel. There is a very steep hillside right behind the settlement and the flat part is only about 500 meters wide. There is a lot of dense vegetation and up near the Pancake Rocks is real rainforest. 

Different layers of rock type that are eroding at different rates and that are what causes the shapes form the formations. It was a very interesting place to visit and the Department of Conservation who run it have done a great job of making it accessible but sufficiently protected. 

I may have mentioned this before but there is virtually no litter in New Zealand and people are likely to pick it up if they see it! Great.

It was blowing a gale when I left Punakaki on Monday morning headed to Westport. There is a turn off that leads to a seal colony so I went to take a look. It was (and probably still is) still blowing a gale but I decided to go see the seals anyway. I put on my trusty rainproof jacket and headed out. 5 minutes later I realized the strategic mistake as the water dripped off it on to my shorts and socks and shoes. Too late to turn back so I went to see the seals who seemed mostly unaffected by the weather! There was also a sign with distances to various places in the world.

It is an interesting adventure to change clothes in a parking lot in the pouring rain in what amounted to a Toyota Corrola!

Westport is a fair size town and like most of the west coast is quite remote. I made a quick visit to the airport to see what sort of facility they had, as there are only dirt strips south of there all the way to Queenstown about 400 km or more away.

It turns out Westport has two scheduled flights a day to Wellington in a 10 seater. Not luxurious but decent service.

A road continues north from there but it is one way in and one way out. The main road takes off to the east at that point and up through the Buller Gorge towards Nelson and Christchurch. It was a spectacular drive in the rain and would warrant a return trip on a nice day.

I arrived in Nelson, my destination around 5pm. What is this? Traffic!! I almost turned around again but pressed on.

It was tough to get a room in Nelson and I can understand why. It is the second biggest town on South Island and in the heart of wine country. It is a very pretty neat and clean little town with a thriving town center (they are known as CBDs in NZ anyway: Central Business District)

I found my B&B after a while, and it was just about a 5 minute walk from the CBD but nice and quiet. The facility was way better than anywhere I have stayed (that I paid for anyway) and had what amounted to a small apartment all to myself. True luxury! I was also able to do some much-needed laundry including the soaking wet shorts from the seal adventure. The owner Nick had, as it turns out grown up in Zambia or Northern Rhodesia as it was at that time. Their family farmed in the Mkushi Block, which I know will not mean much to most people. 

The place was immaculate and it would be a great base for a longer stay in Nelson.

It was late when I was done with everything so I decided on a beer and pizza in a small place close by. It was the only place where I had unresponsive service and I will write a separate post about the experience as it raised some fundamental questions about expectations and how they differ around the world.