Tuesday 15th January was another brilliantly sunshiny day and we were still hardly noticing the sandfies - all great for the West Coast and so different from our last visit.
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| Bottle and binoculars at the ready! |
We continued to go north from Greymouth, stopping at Rapahoe to do the very well maintained 2 hour return Point Elizabeth Walkway. An easy walk which undulates along a gravel pathway through native bush starting with huge stands of large flax bushes.
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| Flax, flax and more flax! |
Along the way there was evidence of pigs rooting, cacophanies of cicadas, a couple of wekas, only a couple of other people and, sadly, very few birds. But a lovely walk which Len feels is one of the best he has done in NZ. It takes you to the Point with great views out to sea and along the remarkable coast.
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| Beautiful views from here. |
And, rather than returning, you could continue southwards and walk to Cobden.
Being parked by the beach I decided it was warm enough to have a swim but although it wasn't too cold I got put off by the little rip and the amount of sand in the water and waves as they broke (not nice when all the sand goes down your togs!) so the swim ended up being just a deep paddle to the top of our thighs. We have since seen signs to say it is dangerous to swim along this part of the coast because of the many rips so I'm glad we were careful.
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| Anyone for pancakes? |
Our next stop was to visit the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, always an awesome sight but, being a sunny calm day and quite a low tide, not as spectacular to look at as on our last visit. We had planned to park in the free area down by the river but found they have recently closed this to campers so being a bit tired to drive on we stopped at the Punakaiki Camping Ground for the night. Nice setting although basic facilities and no phone coverage but we could walk onto the beach which it is right next to and get WiFi at the kitchen block.
We popped into the Punakaiki Tavern on the corner for an easy dinner of fish and chips - not in our Top 10 as far as the previously frozen fish went but all quite OK with no dishes to do.
Another beautiful day on Wednesday - we are so lucky with the weather!
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| Yet another kissing gate! |
After breakfast we drove about 2 minutes down the road to the start of the Pororari River Track which continues on to the big inland walk track or, another option is to do the 3 hour loop which comes back along the Punakaiki River. We opted to just do the 2 hour return track along the river, extending it a little to get to the swing bridge.
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| In suspense! |
We really enjoyed this walk too with its big stands of nikau palms and ponga at the start and views of the lazy-this-time-of-the-year tannin coloured river with the occasional families of kayakers. The path undulates through the bush alongside the river with views of the towering limestone cliffs. Again there were not many birds but we did hear the occasional bell bird and fantail and saw a couple of wekas which weren't too bothered by us.
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| A pretty tame weka. |
The cicada colonies were alive and well as were the 2 wild goats that ran across our path close to the return to our bus.
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| Two goats if you look closely |
This is a obviously a popular walk with both tourists and holidaymakers so we met up with quite a few others.
After a cuppa we were on the road again, stopping to do the 30 minute return Truman Track which takes you down through rimu, rata, matai, kiekie, flax and other natives to a great viewing area overlooking the pounding sea going into a beautiful crescent cove, again unsafe for swimmers but no deterrent to the odd sunbather on this hot sunny day.
We arrived at Woodpecker Bay in plenty of time to get a good spot in the Fox River free overnight parking area but it wasn't long before lots of other vans started to arrive.
We will do the 4 hour return walk up the Fox River tomorrow.
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