West Coast Driving

  Westport, New Zealand
Thursday, April 5, 2007

The northwest coast of New Zealand is windy and rugged, similar to the south coast of Australia. There is one road to take and it hugs the cliffs and the sea pretty closely. New Zealand is famous for its hairpin turns, narrow roads and one lane bridges.

Dad and Julius with the Rainbow

Dad does not like these kinds of roads but the reason I like Julius in the driver seat is it will keep Dad's comments down to a minimum. If mom or I were behind the wheel he would be much more anxious and would probably feel freer to express his anxiety. He is too polite to do this with his son-in-law, plus they stay busy discussing politics, news and sports.

This also is true in Mom's case. She likes to make a lot of suggestions as we drive but these are also less with Julius behind the wheel.

We tried to hit all the main sites as we drove up the coast. Many stops were made to snap photos of the lovely beaches here, here and here. We stopped by the Pancake Rocks and finally landed in Westport for the night. Westport had a cute downtown and a seal breeding ground. We got to snap photos of some cute baby seals.