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Blogs from Punakaiki, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4
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Punakaiki - Limestone pancakes, yum, yum
Published: July 18th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Punakaiki
July 18th 2008
Had a quick stop over on our way to catch the ferry to the north island at these limestone pancake formations. We've not seen anything like these before and thought they were pretty cool. Naturally formed through hard/ soft layering formations of limestone. The sea has worn away a lot of the soft layers, creating the jagged structures as well as blow holes which look impressive when the sea lashes in and is forced upwards and outwards in a water cascade. The thing with NZ is everywhere you turn there is beautiful landscape and driving in the campervan gives you the chance to pull up, take it in and have a cuppa whilst you're doing it, "rock & roll". ... read more
NZ Day 3 - West Coast Tour
Published: March 11th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Punakaiki
March 11th 2008
Last night in Hanmer Springs the sky opened up to a spectacular view of the stars. We have never seen so many stars in the sky as we listenend to Chris Tomlin's song Indescribable. Early this morning we drove through the Lewis Pass as we crossed the South Island to the west coast. The west coast is the wet side of the island and it shows with it's lush green terrain. Driving along the coastline gave us many reasons to stop and take in the view. Amazing beauty! Half way up the coast we stopped at Punakaiki to view Pancake Rocks (panorama above). Tonight we take rest at another unbelievable B&B in Charleston, NZ overlooking the Tasman Sea.... read more
January 31st 2008
Continuando hacia el sur por la costa oeste, dormimos en un hostel cerca de Punakaiki, para visitar esa playa al dia siguiente. Este lugar está en el Parque Nacional Paparoa, todos lo conocen por las piedras en forma de panqueques apilados que hay en la costa. Entonces hicimos la caminata de 30 min que te lleva a hasta la costa de los Pancake rocks and Blowholes ("huecos de soplidos ¿?¿?¿?") y despues hicimos una caminata de 3 horas 1/2 por montañas hasta llegar a un rio de agua cristalina y HELADA. De ahi nos fuimos al lago Brunner, lugar para pescar truchas... OBVIO, pero terminamos durmiendo en el camping más lindo de todo el viaje: "Jackson's Retreat". El camping está al pie de la montaña , al comenzar el Arthur's Pass que lleva al otro lado ... read more
Seals and Blowholes - what a combination!
Published: January 28th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Punakaiki
January 23rd 2008
After a relaxing nights sleep, we set off at about 9am to a place called Cape Foulwinds (no it wasn't named that because people keep farting here, it was because of the strong winds Captain Cook encountered when he sailed here!). There's a wild seal coloney here and it's so amazing to see them in the wild! On land they are quite lazy and just lie there on the rocks sunbathing, but in the sea they swim almost as fast as dolphins! Shows what blubber can do! There were loads of cubs as well which were so cute, but boy did they make a racket! On the way to our next stop we felt a bit guilty about drives past all the so-called 'scenic spots' so stopped at one called the 'Knights View , pretty but ... read more
October 27th 2007
I have wanted to go white water rafting for a long time, so I figured why not do it in New Zealand? It was so much freakin fun!! I totally loved it and can see why Tim did this for a living for so long. We rafted along the Rangitati river which runs right down the middle of the South Island. Rangitati means "river from the sky" and the name is immediately apparent once you see the water. It is the purest and clearest light blue I have ever seen in water before. The river is formed from the melting glaciers, which accounts (along with a large amount of minerals from the eroding rocks) for the color and the ICY coldness. We rafted through a couple Class 3 rapids to get warmed up before heading through ... read more
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June 19th 2007
We got here just after high tide which was great because the main attraction here is the blowholes which are small channels in the rocks that waves crash against and then force the water through to erupt out the other end. The first blowhole we saw was the Chimney Spout which sent out a fine mist of water at least 10m into the air (and the top of the hole was probably that high above the waves already). Then there was another blowhole which sent a much greater quantity of water up but not as high, we spent ages watching this and waiting for good waves! We also trotted down to a beach where we both got our feet wet because the supposedly retreating tide kept coming in further! ... read more
June 13th 2007
After a bit of shopping we left Westport and took the coast road, in fact the only road) south. New Zealand’s south island basically has a ridge of hills and mountains that track down the West Coast leaving a narrow strip of land between them and the coast. For those that have no idea, the south island is much quieter and less populated than the north and a million miles from the city hassles of places like Auckland. Furthermore the ‘West Coasters’ are often regarded as a little ‘different’ by South Islanders, somewhat detached from the rest of the world and about 20 years behind everyone else. For many, those attributes are the attractions of the area and as I biked down an almost deserted road on a crystal clear winter’s day in ’97, with my ... read more
Coastal Road to Pancakes...Yum!
Published: May 26th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Punakaiki
May 26th 2007
On our road journeys we have to cross many train lines, some of which we think are a recipe for disaster! Such as the rail-road bridges, are they designed for trains or cars? Anyway lets cross our fingers and hope we make it across, this involves driving on an extremely narrow bridge on a railway line track! On the way we caught glimpses of stunning coastal scenery, huge jagged rocks and windswept palm trees. We made our way from Franz Josef to Greymouth and then on to Punakaiki to see the amazing blowholes and pancake rocks, naturally formed via weather & sea erosion. The blowholes were on top form as the sea was very rough, (although the best time to see them was early the next morning due to the tides times etc). We walked through ... read more
THE ALPS, PUNAKAIKI AND THE RAINFOREST....SWEET!
Published: May 8th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Punakaiki
May 8th 2007
Saturday 5th May 2007.... Feeling a little delicate on saturday we woke to brilliant sunshine. Armed with a bag full of sweets, a digital camera and a few over night clothes (which was to screw us over later) we headed towards the Alps along Highway 73 around 10am!! We were going straight in between them and the closer we got the more amazing they looked! These mountains stretch for miles and the real big ones are snow covered. We couldn't help but constantly stop and get out to take photos the nearer we got! The views we're awesome and Gill is a dab hand with the camera and got some cracking shots! I left her to the photos as my attempts were laughable! We headed through shantytowns (one called 'Sheffield', which was literally a shop, ... read more
May 6th 2007
Day 17 - Sunday 6th May Left hostel 10.30am and headed towards Greymouth where we would be leaving our Vehicle to catch the Tranzalpine train the following day back to Christchurch!! We arrived in Greymouth + booked a hostel for the night at the 'Noah's Ark Backpackers' - very funky little place! We decided to book a brewery tour + tasting...plus a $5.00 eat as much as you can BBQ - Nik was in her element!LOL!! Headed further North in the car to Punakaiki, to see the Pancake rocks + Blow-holes + to drop off our passenger 'kee'. The rocks were pretty cool...very unusual. The weather came in spells of sunshine + misty/fog, but whilst visiting the Pancake Rocks we were blessed with lots of sunshine + it felt quite warm! We had lunch there + ... read more
