Pancake Rocks and Ferry to North Island

No rest for the weary is the theme of the day today. After getting to bed late last night after our train and drive, we were woken up several times in the night to the total downpour of rain. It was very loud! We were up well before the sun to get a move on north towards the ferry, but we had a stop to make first along the way.

Pancake Rocks was about 45 minutes from Greymouth. We pulled into the parking lot right off the highway and began the walk across the street. The loop was just over a kilometer long, but with lots of viewpoints and stops along the way. The pancake Rocks were everywhere. I expected it to be like the Moeraki Boulders with stacks of rocks on the beach, but these were like pillars coming out of the sea with weathering and erosion to look like the stacks of thin pancakes. They were all over this section of the coast as well as some interesting formations that created cool effects with the ocean and waves. The surge pool was one of my favorites. You could hear the boom of the waves crashing and swirling in the circular rock hole almost creating a pool. The wave surged under the rocks, into the pool and against the wall of rock on the shoreline. It was magnificent and engaged so many senses: hearing with the booms, smell and touch (and taste arguably) with salty spray, and sight with the movement of the water and splashing against the rock. Not far from the surge pool was the chimney pot, a blowhole caused by ocean movements sending water that sprays all the way up a small tube in a cliff. There was also a salty spray section. There was so much to see in such a small space, and little amount of time, on our way to Picton. I wish we had more time to linger, but we had to get to the ferry!

The drive to Picton from the pancake rocks was about 4 and a half hours. The roads were wet from rain, and winding, but we managed to make up some time and get to Picton before check in closed. We even had time to grab Subway and some gas! Luckily gas was right across the street from the ferry check in.

We got our boarding pass and waited about half an hour to board the ferry and make our way up to the passenger seating areas. Sadly we couldn't stay in the car and have a nap in the bed. In and amongst some admin, I popped outside for the good views. Unlike the west coast this morning, the sun was shining and minus the wind, it was very pleasant out on the viewing deck with the gorgeous New Zealand islands and coastline. As we started getting closer to Wellington, the sun was starting to go down and we saw it dip past the mountains and start to light the clouds up a nice pink color. This ferry was a little quicker than the other one, probably the currents, and I feel like we didn't accomplish nearly as much planning as we did the last ferry.

We drove off the ferry and started making our way north. We made a couple of stops at a dump station and another for a quick pizza because we weren't going to finish the 3 hour drive to our campsite at a reasonable time to be making and eating dinner. We pulled in at the National War Museum and found it was surprisingly busy! Definitely one of the busiest campgrounds we've been to. Thankfully we found a spot, even if it wasn't the flattest. We're up before the sun again tomorrow to finish the drive to Taupo!Read more