Punakaiki, West Coast

Kia Ora!

Natalie, Rachel, Maria, Cyn, Chris

 Have you ever looked closely at a map of New Zealand?  Until I came to NZ, I never had.  It's a small country mostly on two islands with lots of mountains.  And a population of 4.5 million people, most of whom live near the coasts.  So it's understandable that roads are somewhat limited.  Whatever the reason, topography, traffic volume, costs, etc., the highway system for the South Island is essentially one big loop along most of its perimeter.  The circle cuts off 1/6 of the Island, the southwest area of Fiordland National Park but there is one road that leads into Milford Sound.  There's also an Inland Scenic Route that goes from Christchurch pass Mount Cook and into Queenstown.  Queenstown is the only city on the South Island that is not on an ocean coast; it's on the shores of Lake Wakatipu.

One lane only

The 4 1/2 hour drive from Nelson took us from vineyards and forestry plantations to countryside covered with natural bush including lots of ferns on sometimes very steep slopes.  We caught regular glimpses of  the Buller River and eventually passed through the Upper and Lower Buller Gorges.  Since it is Autumn, the river was low but apparently the Buller River has one of the highest flood flows (12 meters/40') of all of NZ rivers.
Highway 6 is the main (only) road on the West Coast. It is one lane each way with a occasional slow car turn-out or even rarer, a passing lane.  We crossed numerous bridges, some of them picturesque.  Most of the bridges are one lane.  That is, if you see another vehicle on or approaching the bridge from the other direction, you wait until they are past and then it is your turn.  No lights or signals, just signs to "Give Way".  There aren't any highways in America where I've seen that.  Even the narrowest areas have the solid line separating the two directions of travel.

After a stop in Murchison, a tiny whitewater rafting town, and Westport, a good-size old gold rush turned coal mining town, we reached Punakaiki, my destination for the night.  Punakaiki is in Paparoa National Park.  While there are limestone caverns to be explored and rainforest tracks to be tramped, the main draws are the Pancake Rocks and the Blowholes.

The Pancake Rocks are sedimentary limestone rock where layers of hard limestone alternate with soft mudstone in a process called stylobedding.  After hundreds of thousand years of weathering, the mudstone has eroded more than the limestone, enhancing the "pancake effect".

The Blowholes are formed by wave action.  These limestone cliffs have been pounded by waves for thousands of years.  Each wave takes away some limestone and eventually caves are formed.  High tide waves surge into the cave and the trapped air and water blow out of cracks and fissures in the cave roofs.  The blows are most spectacular during high tide and high southwesterly winds.  The bus stopped from noon to 12:30 with high tide at 12:10.  Lucky us.

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

What I like about the tour buses is that they stop for photo ops at the most scenic spots,  even if they are only 1/2 hour apart.  However, I thought that I would need more than the 30 minute stop at Punakaiki so I decided to spend the night at Punakaiki Beach Hostel.  Since there really is only one road that one can travel either clockwise or anti-clockwise, you tend to recognize fellow travellers.  They might be on your bus or on another bus line but you stop at the same places and in small towns, you end up at the same hostel(s).   There were 5 of us that had enjoyed hot chocolate pudding at Tasman Bay Backpackers in Nelson who were spending the night in Punakaiki's only hostel at the beach.

Thar she blows!

Each of us 4 women had at least 2 bags.  A large backpack and a smaller daypack.  Chris, an Englishman, had one medium size backpack.  He didn't have to worry, like me and some of the other girls, about walking the almost 1 km back to the bus stop the next day.  Going to the hostel was fine, it was downhill but....  Anyway, the next morning, I caught a ride back up the hill a couple of hours early and stashed my packs in the cafe while I explored some more.

I attempted to spelunk The Cavern.  There is no info about how extensive the caves are or how they are laid out.   I was too scared to go in very far by myself with only my little torch.  But even when 4 other people came with their torches, it was still too dark and big and echoey.  So I went back up to the Walkway again.

Punakaiki Blowhole

I can watch waves on a beach for hours and this was no exception.  It was fun to watch the waves come in and try to figure out which would produce the largest blows.  The smallest blowhole was more predictable.  You could see the waves come into the gap.  When the water level at the mouth of the cave was covered by water, there would be little or no blow.  If the water was ebbing and the next surge was large, the blow would be big.

For the larger blowhole, it was more difficult to predict.  You could see huge waves crashing into the rocks but only producing small blows.  I learned to listen for the booming sound of big blows instead.  I took lots of pix.  But I missed a shot of the biggest blow.  It really was the biggest one and came out much higher than any other before or after in the 90 minutes I was there and I got DRENCHED.  The third blowhole was mainly a sound one.  It would moan and groan and occasional spit out some spray.

I had fun.
Cheers!
Cyn


BTW, I love digital cameras.  You can take so many pix and then delete the less good ones.  Just as long as the batteries are charged and there's enough memory on the card.

The Cavern