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| Wainui Falls |
The past two day have involved a lot of driving. Yesterday morning I started out in Pohara. I got packed up in the morning and headed out to a nearby waterfall hike that I had intended to do on my first day there, but because of the downpour, hadn't gotten to. The hike to Wainui Falls was pretty, as they tend to be here. I followed along one side of a creek that had some decent speed to it before crossing over a short swinging bridge. Once on the other side I hiked up a bit further until all of a sudden out of the blue, FALLS. With a lot of water spilling over them, which explained why the creek was so swift. I met no one on the hike in and out. I guess 8am on a Tuesday morning in the middle of nowhere is not a busy hiking time. When I got back to the car, the only thing waiting for me was a herd of cows. They heard me coming and I watched them all move to the corner of their paddock and then they just stared at me. All of them. And then I walked over to the bathroom and their heads followed me.
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| The cows |
From there I started out on the long journey. My plan was to stop in Westport for the night, but that was up in the air a bit as I didn't have anything booked. But that was my goal. Pohara to Westport as the eagle flies, doesn't seem that far, but there are some mountains in the way and New Zealand just basically said there is no reason to blast through these rocks to make a road because no one lives out there, so instead you go around the mountains. And most of these roads are full of twists and turns and the speed limit says it is 100kph, but you're probably averaging more like 60-75kph. You might get up to 100kph on the few straight stretches. So it is long driving and you can't really keep cruise control on. I stopped for gas once, and then because my stomach needed something, I finally stopped for food in Murchison.
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| Buller Gorge Swinging Bridge |
After leaving Murchison, it wasn't all that far to my next destination: the Buller Gorge Swinging Bridge and Ariki Falls. This was the rare hike where you had to pay admission, as you had to cross the swinging bridge to get across. The lady at the gate told me that the falls were unfortunately not much right now due to water levels. The thing was, it wasn't there was nothing going over the falls, it was that there was too much and so they weren't really falling, but looked more like rapids. It was alright really, because my legs needed to stretch anyways.
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| Ariki Falls |
From the Swinging Bridge I drove the last hour to Westport and stayed at a holiday park there in a cute little chalet.
This morning I slept in! My body has naturally been waking me up between 5:30 and 6:00 am, but I had started to reach body tired point where I knew I needed some more sleep, so when my body woke up at 5:30, I said, "Nope! Not today!" and managed to fall back asleep before finally getting out of bed at 7:30.
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| There are 4 seals in this picture. 3 little ones and a mama. |
Today was set to be another driving day sprinkled with stops. This time along the west coast that looks out to the Tasman Sea. Just about 15 minutes from Westport was my first stop, Cape Foulwind. Weirdly enough it wasn't windy there. The hike to Cape Foulwind took you past a lighthouse, some horses, and land that a local high school has been helping to rewild for the past 25 years. The highlight at the end though was the seals! There is a small seal colony that lives out at Cape Foulwind. I counted 15, though there might have been a few more. They're located about 50 feet below you and blew in pretty well. There was at least one baby baby seal, and another few who looked to be last year's babies. There were still some males hanging around for breeding season.
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| Pororari River Gorge (River is out of view) |
From Cape Foulwind, the next major stopping point was Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. I stopped for some pictures along the way, as well as a 1.5 mile hike up Pororari River Gorge. The area around Punakaiki was about the busiest I have seen a place so far. Between the River Gorge and Pancake Rocks, there is a decent amount of things to see right there.
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| Pancake Rocks |
Pancake Rocks are a very interesting set of rock formations on the edge of the sea. Basically imagine a stack of pancakes hundreds of pancakes tall. They are so unique. And there were nesting birds out on some of the rocks as well. With all the babies, I have to remind myself it is spring heading into summer here! Also, FYI, there is a place selling pancakes across the street from Pancake Rocks if you want. Unfortunately I had been snacking so I wasn't hungry (there are these amazing chocolate cookie thing that I've found that are delicious! I'm on my second package).
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| Pancake Rocks |
The most important part of today's journey was the fact that Frodo, Sam, and I reached the end of our journey. On January 1st of this year, I started the 1800 mile trip from Bag End in The Shire, to Mount Doom to drop the One Ring into the fires to be unmade on an app for my Garmin watch called Walk With Frodo. My goal was to accomplish this while in New Zealand and I did. I had just reached the end of the walk through Pancake Rocks when I accomplished this feat! 336 days to do it, averaging 5.36 miles a day.
From Pancake Rocks, I headed inland to Arthur Pass. Well, not quite yet. I haven't hit the pass yet. My hotel for the next two nights was built in 1902 and was an old stagecoach hotel on the Pass road. It is an interesting, eclectic sort of place. I picked it mostly because of its location. It means not having to drive 1.5 hours from Greymouth to get to Arthur Pass National Park tomorrow and the day after, or pay like $200+ a night for a hotel room. It'll do. I don't need anything too fancy (says the girl who once spent 7 whole Euros for one night in a hostel in Madrid...I would recommend spending a few more Euros for something quite a bit nicer...20 Euros will get you a much nicer place).
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| My old-fashioned hotel room. |
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