Driving the West Coast

We made the most of our hotel this morning, enjoying the warm bed and free wifi, checking out at 9:59! Carly had a lovely catchup with Hannah before leaving to discuss the wedding and hen do plans! I vividly remember still planning our wedding, it's such a fun time and you get to spend a lot of it with family!

We set off just after 10 with Carly driving to see if it helped with her motion sickness. My turn to sit back, navigate and look at the views! We didn't have too much planned for the day but in New Zealand the drives are as much about seeing the landscape as getting from a to b. It's a lovely sized country for getting around and totally stunning! The morning fog lifted as we left the glaciers and it turned into a beautiful morning!

Our first stop was Hokitika Gorge. We'd been warned by friends that the sandflies here were particularly bad here so the zip on legs were attached to my shorts before leaving the car! The sandflies weren't too bad in the end but I was grateful for protected ankles!

The attraction to the Gorge is the stunning turquoise waters! The water is this brilliant colour due to years of fossil decay mixing with glaciers melting and rainwater. The result is truly spectacular! We enjoyed the wander down and took a few snaps before the sandflies started to get a little close for comfort! Back in the car we headed to the town of Hotikika.

The west coast is famous for its whitebait patties, although they tend to get mixed reviews from tourists! They're currently well in season so when in Rome! We managed to find a fish and chip shop in Hokitika that sold the infamous pattie so parking up at the beach we headed to the shop.  

The pattie is essentially an omelette with whitebait dotted through it! I have to agree with the general consensus that while inoffensive they're on the bland side! The chips we shared however were delicious, very crispy, proper chip shop chips.

The tagline for this part of the west coast is "Holidays like you used to have, but with better coffee!" It does sum up this area in the positive and negative sense! Very relaxed and gorgeous scenery, today with blue skies! But also the feel of a slightly tired English seaside resort! Either way lovely for a stop for lunch and wander around the small town.

After lunch we headed into town to explore the art shops. The towns along the coast are all historically gold mining towns and are also rich in other minerals. Mountain jade appears to be the main stone with every other shop selling the stone in various guises. 

We then stumbled across a stunning shop selling wildlife photography. The gallery was run by a very entertaining German guy hellbent on a perfect trip advisor score. His work was all stunning, mainly local bird life. He gave us some tips on the local area and some amusing stories on people who'd dared to give him lower than perfect scores! Carly was particularly touched by him not believing she was older than me! The beard is getting a little out of hand!

Following our wander we topped up our supplies at the supermarket and headed up the coast to Punakaiki. We stopped at a campsite on route to book a spot for the night and headed up to the pancake rocks.

Punakaiki is another small town on the West Coast, this time famous for its pancake rocks. Geologists aren't actually sure why the rocks take on the shape they do (like a stack of American style pancakes!) It's a pretty unique view although I'm not sure Carly was overly impressed with the view for a 90 minute round journey!

Following the advise from our German friend we headed further up the coast to a short stroll along Truman Walk. The walk took us through rainforest with beautiful birdsong and out to a deserted beach. The noticeboard informed us that the beach is a known spot for penguin breeding at this time of year but sadly there were no sightings for us tonight. The walk and views however were well worth the trip and it was a lovely end to the day.

Back in the car we headed to our campsite and I hurriedly got dinner on the go. The distances aren't as great as Australia but the drives still take a while and it was 8 before I started cooking. We had kitchen facilities on site so I was able to spread out more than in the van and was pretty chuffed with my cous cous, ratatouille and fried halloumi.

Back in the van tonight and another day on the road tomorrow as we head over to Christchurch.