Before heading out of Greymouth, it was decided by us that some good Karma was badly needed. As luck would have it, I (Swiss) discovered one of the milk bottles from another guest leaking all over the fridge when I opened it, and so I dutifully aided the staff in cleaning up the mess and re-packaging people’s food. Mind you, this involved me removing myself from eating yet another delicious minced pie to help with the operation (we bought a six pack of mince pies two nights ago.) Surely this would put us in good standing with some kind of higher power.
A short while later, after being dropped off at the information center and awaiting our bus, both Jason and I helped the lady there bring in signs during yet another downpour/storm/hail attack (yes, the second time we’ve had hail in as many days.) But Karma would now be on our side, we were convinced as we sat inside soaking wet and freezing our collective bums off.
About 45 minutes into our ride to Nelson, the good Karma kicked in. Our driver stopped at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks Blowholes, for a 25 minute break. As if on queue, the skies opened up and the sun came out. On top of that, because the weather has been so stormy, the waves crashing in to the shore were MASSIVE. Below are some pictures and a video from our quick visit. Absolutely gorgeous and a great little stop on the way. I wish we had some more time. Please check the Flickr album for full size versions, as the little thumbnails just don’t do it justice.
After the quick walk, we headed back in the bus, where it literally started pouring as soon as we sat down and the bus doors closed. Karma, it can be a good thing.
Nelson/Picton
You'll notice that our map up above doesn't mention these two towns, but we were only there briefly. Our bus drive up past Pancake Rocks eventually got us to Nelson, NZ around 6.30pm on Thursday (27-Aug) If you ever get to make the drive from Greymouth to Picton, it is a gorgeous, picturesque drive that cuts through some national forests here and past New Zealand "rain forests" The weirdest part of their rain forests to adjust to is the fact that they contain a lot of fir trees (think Washington/Colorado/Tahoe) mixed with palm trees and tropical plants...a contradiction from what I'm used to but making for an amazing drive! We stayed at a great little place called "the bug" run by a young Brit who moved there a few years ago. He keeps the place in impeccable condition and does a lot of additions and upgrades himself. We literally slept there and were up the next morning to catch a 9am bus to Picton, to catch the 2pm ferry to Wellington! More on our ferry ride and time in Wellington in a future post.
Posts
1 comments:
Glad you got to stop at the Pancake rocks!
Post a Comment