To Murchison
We leave Greymouth today, and head north using the coast road, which gives us a good sense of how rough the storms on the west coast of New Zealand can be, as it is exposed to the full force of the “Roaring Forties” the winds of the “Great Southern Ocean” as they rush around the South Pole.
It is here too that we first see what the locals call ”Pancake Rock” formations, we kept going until we arrived at “Punakaiki,” where our hosts in Greymouth, suggested we stop and take a look around, here the pancake rock formation was at its best, it also made a good Coffee stop.
From here we went further north past the beach at Woodpecker Bay,” again this beach did not have any sand, but more of those round stones. It did not look very inviting for laying down and soaking up some sun, not that it was warm enough anyway.
Our next stop was at “Westport,” Just past where we were to head inland, but by going just a little too far north and back tracking, we could have our lunch at a reasonable time. It was at Westport that we were told of a “Seal Colony” at a place called “Cape Foulwind” and as we were all interested in wildlife and the name intrigued us, we decided that this was a worthwhile detour before heading inland.
The road inland was our first exposure to the New Zealand Gorges as it followed the “Buller Gorge” and the “Buller River” back into the mountains of the south Island!
These mountains were not as tall as those of the Sothern Alps so we did not see any snow, but there were many other things to see, like the half tunnel cut into the side of a cliff along the river so that the road could continue. The half tunnel is not really a tunnel as one side is open and only the roof and one side is cut into the rocks of the cliff
Because of the nature of this road there were limited places I could stop to take photos, which was a real pity, as the area is real breath taking and very worth the visit. We were however able to leave the road near Lyell and view that is known as the “Lyell Landslide,” this was caused by one of the many Earth Quakes” that rock New Zealand.
By now sunset was approaching, and we had arrived in the small town of “Murchison,” hoping to repeat the sort of hospitality we had in Greymouth, we looked for a private place that offered a Bed and Breakfast, but here all we could get for the night was a small cabin, and as the following day was “ANZAC Day” that was the only accommodation left in town! It did have the advantage of being on a farm so it was quiet except for the farm animals and a real friendly dog.
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