Pancake Rocks

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It had been raining in the night & looked like it wouldn't let up for the rest of the day - it was like the Greymouth we remembered.
We left Global Village Backpackers with a new passenger, Randi who was travelling in the same direction & wanted to stay at The Old Slaughterhouse having had a similar recommendation to us.
After stocking up on grub at the supermarket we headed north along the west coast. Punakaki was our first stop & luckily the rain had cleared leaving bright sunshine over the rugged coastline.
The Pancake Rocks are funnily enough rock formations that look like stacks of pancakes that are continually eroded by the rough Tasman Sea. In between the pancakes are several blowholes which given the right conditions (a high tide & south westerly swell) spurt sea water high into the air. We didn't seem to have the right conditions but could see the awesome power of the waves sloshing huge swathes of seaweed at the bottom. The cafe next to the visitor centre promised pancakes with fresh fruit, syrup & ice cream as anyone with any business sense would provide at such a place. We went in to check it out & were disappointed to see plates of two rubbery looking pancakes not even stacked on top of each other. We didn't buy any.
A little further up the coast was Trumans Beach, a beach frequented by little penguins but only around dawn & dusk. We didn't see any late night party penguins or any that had slept in. We made it back to the car just in time as it had started raining again.
The drive to Hector was pretty uneventful but the rain got steadily worse, so much so that we missed out stopping at Cape Foulwind to see the seals vowing to stop on the way back. By the time we were in Hector the rain was lashing down so hard that we missed our turn off the first time & had to drive back to the hostel. The Old Slaughterhouse is a backpackers situated ten minutes walk up a hill with fantastic views over the Tasman Sea. As it was raining so hard we decided that rather than sorting out all our stuff for it to be taken up the hill on a quad, we just legged it up the hill. Ten minutes later we were being greeted by David & Ina & the pets Beatrice, Elka & Jefferson & a cup of tea & cake. Having been shown around the wonderful house we waited for the rain to cease. Hours later a glint between the clouds signaled it may be time to brave the hill once more & we recovered our stuff. We spent the evening playing cards with Genevieve & Fred, French Canadians who had turned up a little later than us. When it was time for bed we crossed over to the 'nest' & spotted something scrabbling under the dorm. Fixed in the torchlight was a weka, a flightless New Zealand bird that we had been trying to spot on numerous walks in Stewart Island. After looking a little puzzled as to why we were shining torches in its eyes it continued to scratch around in the dirt & we went to sleep listening to the gentle roar of waves crashing on the beach far below.

Drink of the Day: Monteith's Original Ale

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