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Yes, today I finally put my flipflops away and took to the walking boots again! The weather is damp and slightly chilly at times - at other times the sun shines through warming us up nicely thank you!
The view out of the van this morning was nothing short of spectacular - slightly misty with the sun shining down on the waves and the cliffs - it was absolutely glorious. An added bonus was the cute birds from last night - flightless indigenous weka came around as soon as we opened the van doors (in fact, one tried to get into the van) and as I was sitting outside eating my bacon sarnie, I kept catching movement out of my eyes - they were coming up so close. We probably broke a few rules by treating them to some bread, watermelon and noodles, but hey - they seemed to enjoy it. We think it was a mother and family, because mum kept gathering two of more pieces of food in her mouth darting away and then feeding the ‘babies’ who were bigger than she was! It was great fun to watch.
John decided to walk up to the lighthouse,
while I decided that I didn’t want to give the walking boots too much of a shock, so opted to staying sitting in the sunshine with a coffee, my book and the weka. And very nice and peaceful it was too - with a fantastic view - no doubt John’s view was slightly better, but mine was good enough for me!
But our next stop had me fair jumping out of the van - we were walking up to the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony - and boy, was the walk worth it. We stood for ages watching the seals lazing around on the rocks in the sunshine - the mums were trying to sleep, but were occasionally nudged by a youngster looking for a feed, there were some juveniles who were play fighting (well, we think they were playing, but there was certainly some biting!) I couldn’t believe how they could leap from rock to rock, and one bright spark had managed to climb half way up the cliff! (OK, maybe not half way, but a considerable distance). There were also a
couple in the sea, and we couldn’t believe they could swim around in such rough sea with wild currents and jagged rocks and not get hurt. A total joy to watch, and we could have stood there for hours. I was intrigued to learn that the females mature at 4 years old and normally have their first pups at 5 years old - the males don’t mature until they’re 8 or 9 ... it was ever thus, eh girls?!
So here we were driving along a wonderfully scenic road - in fact Lonely Planet’s Blue List (whatever that is) has designated the West Coast Highway as one of the Planet’s 10 best road trips ... and I’ve got to say, it was pretty special. Surprisingly, the Kiwis don’t seem to make much of it - there is literally nothing barring a few hamlets and some isolated farms/houses. You can’t even buy petrol for 120 kilometres! We passed through a town called Charleston, one of the old gold towns, used to be able to boast 80 hotels, 3 breweries and hundreds of thirsty miners ... now there’s only one hotel left, and that doubles up as the cafe. Unfortunately, the
weather did close in a bit as we were driving along, and I remember thinking ‘this would look lovely in blue’, but it actually looked pretty darned good in greys - at times almost mystical.
Soon we’d arrived at Punakaiki, and after a brief visit to the cavern, we took off to look at the pancake rocks and blowholes (which weren’t blowing unfortunately ... one day maybe John will get to see his blowing blowhole!). The pancake rocks are absolutely fascinating - created by a layering/weathering process called stylobedding (apparently!). They were beautiful to look at and we thought they stood their own against the 12 Apostles in Australia. We can tick off #29 on the list too! Incidentally the spikey green plant growing all over the pancake rocks is New Zealand Flax, which the Maori use to weave clothing, baskets, etc
On again, we passed a sign welcoming us to the Grey District, and indeed we were soon in Greymouth - situated at the mouth of the Grey River! OK, the guidebook said the original settlers had lots of things to name - but I have to say that grey is exactly what it is. Not only
is the river grey, but the mud is grey - and it was actually very attractive and different.
Soon we’d gone through a train ‘tunnel’ bridge and past two roundabouts with trainlines cutting right through the centre of the roundabout (John says I have to put this bit in, because they fascinated him!).
We eventually found the DOC campsite that I’d earmarked, on the banks of a lake. Another long day, but another good one! And my favourite creeks today ... its got to be Hou Hou Creek and Little Hou Hou Creek!
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