Punakaiki Cottage Motels

Punakaiki

We left Kanuka ridge and headed through Westport to Punakaiki, a 4 hour windy mountainous drive led us to the Te Nikau retreat, it was certainly tucked away! After settling into our room we followed a sign that said ‘beach’ 5minutes walk! Off we went into the rain forest and then out through a flax walkway and then a cliff walk!! Down onto what ended up being a rocky beach with stones and a VERY rough sea! No ...

... student who was on his 5th jump but looked more scared than we did. The flight was the worst bit by far.

Very quickly we were up at 13000 feet and the door was opened. No time for goodbyes, Jon's bloke had them out the door and plumetting towards the ground. The student went next, leaving me and Kevin. Unlike the bungy jump I didn't have time to hang around or get scared. We sat by the door, waved for the camera and then rocked out. The free fall was amazing, no ...

... so that on some of the stacks you wouldn't be surprised to see the occassional fat American with a big jug of syrup trying to tuck into a free lunch whilst no-one was looking.

There were huge blowholes amongst the rocks which, if you watch at high tide, spout huge geyser-like spurts of water up into the air. As ever our timing was impeccable - this is another phenomena we need to park for the next time we're in these neck of ...

... Managed to find our way to the tourist info shop and had to ring the bus with an SOS call to come and collect us all! Ha! Cause we missed our scenic picnic spot we had to ram our sandwiches down our necks whilst taking on hairpin bends!! Westport was a really quiet town so all took the oppourtunity to relax for the night with DVD's and we were all treated to a single bed - with a matress! Bunk beds get tiring!!!

... disappointed, never mind, it's a good excuse to come back again! Milford does have several year round waterfalls, some taller than Niagra Falls, although, not having seen Niagra, I couldn't be certain. Due to all the rain, the top of the sea water is always covered by a layer of freshwater, which allows some sea life to live at much shallower depths than normal. It's a photographers dream I imagine, its difficult to get an ugly shot here and even our little camera with its ...

... and glad we did it but not sure if I'd bother again. It was the most fantastic day with the air clairity it was like looking through a magnifying glass. Nice place but moving on to west port. 1 Night here as not much to it and heading to Golden bay tomorrow so this is a stop over. Really nice walk along the beach tonight and the sand is like Talc. Drink in the bar at the end of the beach and waddlw home. On to Pohara.

... the mountain pass to Richmond, then on past Murchison to Westport. This drive took all afternoon and passed through some fairly unpleasant weather, but also involved passing down the impressive Buller Gorge and, at one point, under a precarious overhang that had been cut out by the flooding river. From Westport, we joined the main SH6 West coast road south and then stopped for the night at a free campsite by the bay at ...

... was. He had another look at the car and rang Wicked Campervans who basically told him they cannot send a replacement van out and we would have to return to Christchurch to collect another one. Seriously!! Like, the next bus to Christchruch was the next morning at 7am. Not only had we lost 3 nights of our trip in, I'm sorry Westport, but a $h*thole, we also had to pay for a bus back to Christchurch!!! They referred us to some customer care email address which was a bit rich. Fiona laid ...

... the west side of the island through
all the mountains and Arthur's pass. Every hairpin turn around the
mountains were a little scary at first but second nature to Lu. Plus
all the valleys and rock formations were totally LOTR.


6:00
PM - Once we ...

... hij stond aan de zeekant, zodat je, terwijl je in de spa-pool zit, uitzicht hebt op de ondergaande zon boven de Pancake Rocks en de rollende branding van de zee.

De volgende dag zijn we (Erika en ik en nog 2 meisjes uit het hostel) naar de Pancake Rocks gegaan. Het beste is om daar bij vloed heen te gaan, omdat het water dan meters ver de lucht ingestuwd wordt door zogenaamde "blowholes". Veel foto's ...