Serving up some Pancake Rocks

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Day 520 (30.08.08)

Following the Buller Gorge we left our little pad and were soon at the Buller Swing Bridge. Keeping it cheap we both decided to pay for our ticket to go across on the impressive 110m bridge and do the bush walk the other side, however Mum and Dad splashed out the little extra for the 'flying fox' route back - Extreme NZ fever was hitting the olds!

Walking across the bridge gave us a great view and the walk was fantastic, however when it came to the zip wire - Mum had a bout of nerves and passed her ticket onto Mark! It was great fun and if we get the chance we'll upload a video for you guys.

Pushing on we stopped at the beach in Westport for yet another stunning picnic site for lunch. Dropping into a couple of short walks at Cape Foulwind (well we had to just for the name) and Touranga Bay for yet more fur seals we continued our road trip south. The road followed the coast and even though we had a bit of mist the scenery was stunning. We managed to stop at the Irimahuwhero lookout where we saw the full majesty of the West coast.

A little further on was the Pancake Rocks. Here by a freak geological phenomenon, the rock has formed in hundreds of layers making it look like a stack of 'pancakes' - i guess that's where it got its name from! We parked up and walked around the track stopping at some of the viewing points they have there. It was quite a strange but fantastic sight with the layers upon layers of the rock climbing from the sea. The highlight of the walk was one of the last viewing platforms where not only do you get the best view across the rock formations but there is also a blowhole. We were lucky that it is quite rare to be fully 'blowing' and it decided that it would put in a performance for us - excellent!

Not too much further on we reached the town of Greymouth. We're not sure whether we were prejudiced by the name or whether it was because of the overcast and rainy weather - but our first impressions of ther place was that it was pretty dull and dreary. Finding a place for the night, Mum, Mark and Chrissie all went for a bit of a walk on the beach and left Dad with a bit of peace and quiet before yet another feast for dinner.

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