Punakaiki

Punakaiki, South Island, New Zealand
Thursday, December 12, 2013

It is has taken me several days to get my head around our current port of call. I have been determined to call it Punayaki! Whatever, we left the Abel Tasman Area to drive some 300kms through the Buller Gorge to the northern section of the west coast. The Buller is regarded as one of the finest drives in New Zealand and I can see why. Yet again, you do not know where to look. I hesitate to use the word spectacular once more, but really there isn't an alternative. We hit the west coast at Westport and started to head South. Typically of this neck of the woods the clouds started to gather, but nothing could diminish the views once we actually hit the coast itself. It is wild and I mean that advisedly. The Tasman sea pounds on to the shoreline in great breakers, carving the limestone rock into fantastic shapes. I was glued and had to keep stopping the car to gaze in wonder. PL was less than enthused after the first stop and failed to get out of the car for the next 10! No wonder he failed OLevel geography 3 times, failure to pay proper attention to the physical! No comments please, I mean that purely in geographical terms.
Punakaiki itself is a very small settlement between Westport and Greymouth. The Punakaiki Resort is right on the beach and we can sit on the balcony, or in the room and watch the caldron like sea. It is mesmerising. However, a kayak would stand no chance! Just to the north are the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, which is a must see if you are in the area. We made it just before the rain came down once more. Well it is Westland after all. There is no geological explanation, but the rocks are layered like pancakes, heavily carved and eroded by pounding seas into arches, bridges, stacks and anything else you would care to name. The sea blasts through the blow holes and bridges, creating more havoc as it goes. I have never seen anything like it and will have to go back for another look tomorrow if I can motivate PL sufficiently. Bribery do you think? Again no comment please, it would be vulgar!
There are some great walks or 'tramps' as they are called over here, in the vicinity and I wish we had more time to do some, but then that is the cry wherever you are in New Zealand.
As I sit writing to you this evening I can hear the surf pounding on the beach some 100 meters away and one is aware that this is a special place on earth. Tomorrow we move on to our final stop at Arthur's Pass National Park in the Southern Alps, which is I suspect another. We have passed through briefly on the Trans Alpine Express and look forward to a closer look.Read more