Travel Journal:

New Zealand - Pancake (rocks) and Rain


Pancake (rocks) and Rain 2006-11-18
 
After a major torrential downpour at 6am the rain finally seemed to let up a bit this morning. It looked like it might clear. I made myself oatmeal and tea in the ghetto kitchen. I went back a few miles to get gas then headed north up Rt 6 to Punakaiki.

The big draw of Punakaiki is the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. As I pulled in the parking lots were full but I happened upon someone pulling out and was able to get a spot right away. You follow a path out to the cliffs where the pancake rocks are. There are sections of huge rocks that have worn at the layers to look like stacks of pancakes. Then there's another section with a blowhole. Since it was stormy I'd hoped it would be good. It did erupt a bit but I'm sure it was really good at high tide. The whole area is pretty cool with bridges and paths to get around. I think I got a bunch of great photos.

It started raining again so I poked around some of the shops. I ended up buying a print for myself. Then I drove a couple of kilometers down the road to Truman's Walk. It's about a 15 minute walk to an isolated cove with some cool rocks. There are also sometime blue penguins on the beach but I didn't see any signs of them.

I drove back to Greymouth and stopped at The Warehouse for some stuff I needed. I wanted an electric light to save the batteries on my lantern for when I really needed it. I found a florescent "inspection light" for $5.99. And it had a hook too! Then I got a travel mug for $8, since the van only has plastic cups. I also bought pins to hold the curtain closed (I know I'm paranoid) and some S hooks to hang stuff in the van. Altogether I think I spent about $20.

Then I drove down the coast to Hokitika and poked around the shops. Hokitika is a big spot for jade and you can tell by the 20 zillion shops within maybe 4 square blocks. It was around 4pm so I went over to the Shining Star campground and got a power site for $15. This place is really nice. There is a power site section with about 15 sites and a big log cabin lodge with the bathrooms/showers and then a lounge/kitchen with a tv and couches. It's all very new looking and clean. Much much nicer than the ghetto place I was at the previous night. I found out they had wireless internet. It was $10 for 1 hour or $25 for 4 hours. ouch!

I ended up getting the $25 so I can get all my photos uploaded. And did I mention it was raining again? Yay. I had snagged Angels & Demons from the last joint, so I made myself some tea and sat in the lounge and read it. I was going to cook dinner but it was getting late so I had some cheese and crackers and went to bed.
 
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