Friday, September 24, 2004
Westward Ho
For all of those who have not heard, we have changed our NZ careers to broaden our skill set in such a demanding and unpredictable economy as seasonal work. Having completed the arduous training period we can now say that we are full fledged wholesale nursery workers (of the plant variety mind you, not the mini human kind. Having said that, last weekend we were grateful to have yet another week completed and in desperate need to escape everything to do with said job. Our sights took us westward to the dramatically different setting of the west coast, no longer the calm mild weather of the Tasman Bay.
We left Friday night into the unknown twisty roads paralleling the Buller River and camped outside the bustling town of Westport. After waking up and seeing Westport in the light, we quickly left and headed south along the coast. The landscape is quite nice along the coast there, and for everyone who has been up and down the Oregon and Washington coast, it is remarkably similar in terms of geography and known for nasty weather. Such training has hardened our traveling spirits, and we have come to expect and love even the nastiest of coastal weather. However Uncharacteristic, we managed to spend most of our time in quite nice weather.
A few kilometers south of Westport is Tauronga Bay, and this is why I had to say most of our time was spent in nice weather. Early morning on Saturday found us hiking around the end of the bay to the aptly named Cape Foulwind. Aptly named because of the sideways spitting rain and the jagged rocks found by Meghan, myself, and Captain Cook when he charted the area from the water years ago. Why would anyone want to don rain slickers and wander around like the greater part of Florida's population of the last couple months? Because down on the jagged rocks was a fur seal colony. I will spare the images of furry rocks behind the sea splattered lens and instead here Meghan found a sign pointing home, well, at least that is what the Kiwi think when they hear she is from Moscow.
Uh, Meg, I think that is Moscow... Russia
Enough of the drenching rain and we ran off again. Having driven most of the way to our destination, then back to Westport cause some dolt missed the sign "87 kilometers to the next petrol station", and back again... we finally arrived in Punakaiki. This awesome little tourist town is a sight seeing must. Situated at the base of the Southern Alps the geology has turned up some very interesting features which I will get to in a second, and the climate has provided the rest. After taking one of the many short nature walks through densely rainforested bush, we found ourselves on the beach. I guess you could call it that at low tide, since at high tide it was a frothing sea battering the cliffs.
the "beach"
Warning, cliffs are incredibly larger than they appear.
After a while of dodging waves to sneak around the sea wall a few times, we saw enough of the beach and all its raw power... well not really, but more on that later yet again...
Instead, we decided upon some of the treks up into the mountains. I don't know how I manage to find such cool hikes, it must just be my nature. Our hike took us up Fox River, then wading through Fox River... er twice (one way), through the jungle...
Jungle Tramping
an hour and a half to our destination, Fox River Cave. Actually this was the second cave we went to, but the first one wasn't as cool and was next to the highway, so it is hardly worth mentioning except that it was cool and dark and had one glow worm and looked like it recently had a few million pounds of rocks fall in various places... but I am sure it was safe... Everyone else was doing it.
Um, Us...
Anyway, Fox River Cave was very cool and actually had a lower cave which randomly fell into bottomless pits and has the random collapse every now and then, consequently deterring us to the main cave, which we happily explored. Discovered by some farmer in search of his sheep (Go figure, in NZ... Sheep) around 1906, this farmer paved a path into the cave with flagstone to ensure the caves was kept neat and tidy. Following this path into the cave, we soon found that either the farmer got bored randomly in places along the cave and forgot to pave a couple places, or the cave has had a few changes since 1906. Either way we found exploring the cave awesome and well worth the feet numbing wade through the river. We even had a little fun with the camera's long exposure.
15 seconds really is a long time to look at even cool stalagtites... or is it a stalagmite...
After Fox River Cave and wading back across the river... two more times (it is interesting how much colder it felt on the return...) we went back to Punakaiki's main attraction. Yes, I said back because we actually visited this place both Saturday and Sunday at high tide.
Punakaiki is home to the famous Pancake Rocks and Blowhole.
Pancake rocks with the raging surf from the South.
Quick the sun came out!
Putai Blowhole just before Meghan gets really wet.
I am sure it is just as cool in nice calm weather, but we had an especially awe inspiring time at high tide and rough surf. Only then does the surf bounce back and forth between the dolomite pillars and finally shoot skywards. The waves pounded the rocks off shore, out the blow hole, and into a large surge pool in a cacophony of whooshes and thumps. This truly was an incredible place to overload the senses. Hard to put into words, you will just have to see all the other images we took to get a real feel for it.
Desperately wanting to avoid work again, we had to say adieu to the coast, but the real exploring of the south island is yet to come.
Kia Ora from Aotearoa
We left Friday night into the unknown twisty roads paralleling the Buller River and camped outside the bustling town of Westport. After waking up and seeing Westport in the light, we quickly left and headed south along the coast. The landscape is quite nice along the coast there, and for everyone who has been up and down the Oregon and Washington coast, it is remarkably similar in terms of geography and known for nasty weather. Such training has hardened our traveling spirits, and we have come to expect and love even the nastiest of coastal weather. However Uncharacteristic, we managed to spend most of our time in quite nice weather.
A few kilometers south of Westport is Tauronga Bay, and this is why I had to say most of our time was spent in nice weather. Early morning on Saturday found us hiking around the end of the bay to the aptly named Cape Foulwind. Aptly named because of the sideways spitting rain and the jagged rocks found by Meghan, myself, and Captain Cook when he charted the area from the water years ago. Why would anyone want to don rain slickers and wander around like the greater part of Florida's population of the last couple months? Because down on the jagged rocks was a fur seal colony. I will spare the images of furry rocks behind the sea splattered lens and instead here Meghan found a sign pointing home, well, at least that is what the Kiwi think when they hear she is from Moscow.
Uh, Meg, I think that is Moscow... Russia
Enough of the drenching rain and we ran off again. Having driven most of the way to our destination, then back to Westport cause some dolt missed the sign "87 kilometers to the next petrol station", and back again... we finally arrived in Punakaiki. This awesome little tourist town is a sight seeing must. Situated at the base of the Southern Alps the geology has turned up some very interesting features which I will get to in a second, and the climate has provided the rest. After taking one of the many short nature walks through densely rainforested bush, we found ourselves on the beach. I guess you could call it that at low tide, since at high tide it was a frothing sea battering the cliffs.
the "beach"
Warning, cliffs are incredibly larger than they appear.
After a while of dodging waves to sneak around the sea wall a few times, we saw enough of the beach and all its raw power... well not really, but more on that later yet again...
Instead, we decided upon some of the treks up into the mountains. I don't know how I manage to find such cool hikes, it must just be my nature. Our hike took us up Fox River, then wading through Fox River... er twice (one way), through the jungle...
Jungle Tramping
an hour and a half to our destination, Fox River Cave. Actually this was the second cave we went to, but the first one wasn't as cool and was next to the highway, so it is hardly worth mentioning except that it was cool and dark and had one glow worm and looked like it recently had a few million pounds of rocks fall in various places... but I am sure it was safe... Everyone else was doing it.
Um, Us...
Anyway, Fox River Cave was very cool and actually had a lower cave which randomly fell into bottomless pits and has the random collapse every now and then, consequently deterring us to the main cave, which we happily explored. Discovered by some farmer in search of his sheep (Go figure, in NZ... Sheep) around 1906, this farmer paved a path into the cave with flagstone to ensure the caves was kept neat and tidy. Following this path into the cave, we soon found that either the farmer got bored randomly in places along the cave and forgot to pave a couple places, or the cave has had a few changes since 1906. Either way we found exploring the cave awesome and well worth the feet numbing wade through the river. We even had a little fun with the camera's long exposure.
15 seconds really is a long time to look at even cool stalagtites... or is it a stalagmite...
After Fox River Cave and wading back across the river... two more times (it is interesting how much colder it felt on the return...) we went back to Punakaiki's main attraction. Yes, I said back because we actually visited this place both Saturday and Sunday at high tide.
Punakaiki is home to the famous Pancake Rocks and Blowhole.
Pancake rocks with the raging surf from the South.
Quick the sun came out!
Putai Blowhole just before Meghan gets really wet.
I am sure it is just as cool in nice calm weather, but we had an especially awe inspiring time at high tide and rough surf. Only then does the surf bounce back and forth between the dolomite pillars and finally shoot skywards. The waves pounded the rocks off shore, out the blow hole, and into a large surge pool in a cacophony of whooshes and thumps. This truly was an incredible place to overload the senses. Hard to put into words, you will just have to see all the other images we took to get a real feel for it.
Desperately wanting to avoid work again, we had to say adieu to the coast, but the real exploring of the south island is yet to come.
Kia Ora from Aotearoa
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