Up the West coast

Started by packing up and skirting along the lake to Dorothy falls. There had been loads of landslides from the massive rain fall a few weeks ago. DOC has been very quick in restoring everything, but scary to see the amount of water that would have been cascading down the hills.
The landscape is completely different to central south island, with much more lush vegetation, smaller flat plains with hills that rise steeply from them.

Our first port of call was Hokitika gorge. 15 min walk to the end and back with nice views over a river. But sandflies everywhere. So annoying.
Then made our way to the seaside town of Hokitika for some fish and chips and doughnuts. Yum yum.

Rain coming soon, we headed north towards Pancake rocks. The West coast here looks very similar to the East coast of Taiwan. The pancake rocks were cool with a few blow holes spurting up water.

Then a bit further north to Cape Foulwind to see some seals. Then inland towards Lyell for our campground for the night.
We arrived in a gorge. Got setup whilst 100s of sandflies tried to attack. They are just the most annoying things!
To get away we went for a walk. Through thick, steep sided forest.
Back to cook up some pasta whilst being attacked further. Rain started at 9.30 so that signalled bed time.Read more