We got up around 9, refreshed and ready to continue our road trip up the west coast. Our first stop was at Punakaiki, to check out the 'pancake rocks' and blowholes. Every single guidebook lists it as a top attraction, and as a result, there were quite a few tourists there. We had a quick brunch and set out to see what the hype was about. The formations were cool, but it wasn't going to be high tide for a couple of hours, and that's when the 'action' would start, with water surging through the rocks and out of the blowholes. As we were making our way to a large viewing area, we spotted the Coloradans we met on the Kepler Track coming towards us. We exchanged pleasantries and talked about the bad weather over the last couple of days and found out that they had also had a trip cancelled. They were also heading north, and rolled out right after our conversation. We decided to wait another hour and see if things got more exciting.
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| Olsen in a pancake rock chair |
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| Assorted pancake rock formations |
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| Clark: cave explorer |
To pass the time, we hiked down the road with our headlamps to explore a cavern listed in the DOC brochure. It was a short adventure, but we reached the back of the cavern and found a neat waterfall while also managing to get covered in yellow residue from the rocks. By the time we made our way back to the pancake rocks, the tide had definitely risen, but no action yet. We waited a half hour, and I saw one sweet surge in one of the formations, but not much else. We decided to press on and chalked it up to the swells not coming from the right direction, and besides, we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.
As we drove north, the weather graciously stayed clear and beautiful. We drove along the coast until Westport, then began driving inland toward Buller Gorge. Once again we were amazed by the non-stop scenery, we transitioned from beautiful beaches to forested river valleys and increasingly tall mountains. At the top of the gorge, we made a pitstop in the town of Murchison, about halfway to our destination. The scenery shifted again to evergreens and steep slopes, and we remained in awe. We haven't driven down a single road that isn't gorgeous on the entire South Island. Sure, you get some farmland here and there, but the colors and the landscape are completely captivating, no matter where you are. Unbelievable.
Anyway, we finally made our way into the Golden Bay region by driving up (and down) Takaka Hill (which is really more of a small mountain) with ridiculous hairpin turns and a maximum speed of about 40 mph. It's no wonder most tourists don't make it out that far into Abel Tasman National Park, but that was exactly what we wanted - a nice relaxing day or two on the beach without hoardes of tourists. We pulled into Pohara at about 7:30, and used the GPS to find our way to our motel, Sans Souci, which is French for 'without worries'. I had chosen it for its reasonable price compared to other places in the area, and it seemed like it would be a unique place to stay. It is also an eco-friendly resort, with a centralized bathroom/shower facility that has composting potties, where you scoop sawdust in instead of flushing. Unique indeed ;) All kidding aside, the grounds were beautiful and the beds had memory foam mattresses, it is a great little place.
We had a pizza at the corner pub, then strolled down the road to get the lay of the land. Pohara has a vast beach right in town, and the water is quite shallow, so at low tide, the beach extends a couple hundred meters out. We found some shells and assorted sea creatures, including a huge manta ray that didn't make it out with tide. It was almost dark, so we headed back to the motel and attempted to make plans for the next day. We didn't know exactly what we were going to do, but we knew it would be awesome.
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