Driving, Cape Foulwind, Pancakes and Pounamu

Oh no, Juliet, don't leave Koala behind!

It was a long day of driving from Golden Bay to Westport. And I am glad that we didn't decided to drive any further that day. Any more driving and the beauty of the place all blurs into one long car ride and takes the fun out of the trip.
Most of the day was spent heading over the mountains and down the Buller River gorge to the wild west coast. There were several wonderful road side fruit stalls and an aborted picnic at a place the kids aptly dubbed "sandfly river" (we ate in the car, with the windows up), but mostly we drove on enjoying the scenery as it passed by. And luckily the weather gods are still on our side with fantastic blue skies all the way.

Views of Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind

Westport is our stopover point where we checked in to our next Top 10 for the night. Westport is kind of a gloomy town, being on the dieing side of the coal mining industry, and lashed with the wild west coast weather, but we did make it in time to check out the Fur Seal Colony at Cape Foulwind which was well worth the stop!

The stunning beach at Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind

Cape Foulwind Lighthouse

Cape Foulwind was named by Captain Cook who encountered the famous west coast weather on his trip through the area in 1770. It took his ship three months to pass this cape, poor souls. It's surprising that his name for the Cape wasn't a bit ruder! The walk out to the Fur Seal Colony was the perfect way to stretch out the car cramps and the baby fur seals were just adorable. Once you adjusted your eyes there were heaps of them bouncing around under rocks waiting for mum to come home and feed them. Lucky for us we still had the stunning weather to highlight the pristine beach that stretches along this lonely, seemingly forgotten coastline. 

In the morning we are off to check out the Glaciers!

Punakaiki Coastline, one of Lonely Planet's top ten most scenic drives

Sister Power

The drive from Westport to Glacier Country is rated by Lonely Planet to be one of the top ten most scenic drives in the world. Sadly our pact with the good weather god ended and we awoke to rain. I suppose it had to happen and truth be told the weather added a bit of mystery to the surrounds. The mountains were wreathed it low lying clouds and seemed both distant and intimate at the same time. Huge cliffs dripping with water and ancient vegetation plunge into the storm swept seas that churned with giant sea kelp and rolling breakers. Lonely planet did not lie, it's dramatic scenery whatever the weather.

Walking through the fields of flax to see the Pancake Rocks

We stopped at Punakaiki to view the famous pancake rocks that stick out into the ocean here. They are made from limestone, but geologists are still puzzled as to why they developed such a unique look to them. The rain had lifted enough to allow us to take the walk around the rocks and view platforms. It is very well laid out for visitors and with all the Chinese tourists that are starting to flood the tourism sector here I would say it's a good thing. Clara had her picture taken by several Asian tourists all in love with her bronze-red hair!

Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki

Pancake Rocks

And it's back on the road. Once past Greymouth the scenery starts changing and you can feel the presence of the glaciers up in the hidden mountains above us. These are the Great Southern Alps that we are starting to encounter and every few kilometers or so that we drive south we cross another raging glacial river running out of the hills. These mountains and rivers are where the pounamu (Nephrite Jade) was traditionally harvested by the Maori, something they used as money and status. They would travel long distances and fight many a battle to come into possession of this most sacred taonga (treasure). Looking at the raging rapids and milky glacial waters I have a new found respect for those first settlers of New Zealand who traveled through this inhospitable country.

The kids are good troopers and we stop whenever needed - even by the side of one such raging glacial river! At one turn off we made a stop to see if we could fossick out any jade, but the sand flies were too big for us to stay long.

Finally we arrived in the little town of Fox Glacier, a town built solely on the tourist trade servicing the glacier. Tomorrow we are going back in geological history to climb one of the last vestiges of the ice age - the Fox Glacier.

Campsite for the night.... In the shadow of giants....