Pancake rocks

We had quite a long drive the next day north-east coast but the scenery was so impressive the miles flew by - a bit like being back on the great ocean road. On the way we stopped off for a picnic lunch (we do love picnics even when it is cold and windy outside) and walk at picturesque Rotoroa lake. We didn't get in to Punakaiki until nearly sunset so we parked up in a slightly dodgy layby - it had great views of the ocean though which helped us forget about the noise of trucks racing by the road next to us.

Camp spot for the night

In the morning we took at walk to see the 'pancake rocks' - a geological wonder not a great breakfast diner. The rocks are giant limestone bluffs - the many layers really did look like a plate of pancakes and made us quite hungry. It was nearly high tide so the blow holes were quite impressively shooting us plumes of water.

Looking a bit lost!

We drove onto Greymouth for an afternoon tour of Monteith's brewing company. The tour around the small brewery was slightly dull, but tasting session at the end in their cool old fashioned bar made up for it. Lydia was good enough to just taste a couple so that she could drive afterwards and Mark could enjoy the full flavours, he wasn't much good at navigating afterwards so we had some local fish and chips to soak the beer up. Then we drove onto to Lake Mapourika for another night under the stars (well, in a camper van under the stars anyway).

Pancake Rocks

Strange bird with a big appetite for Albran

Ummm, beer!!!!