Rainy West Coast

After an awesome day in the Abel Tasman national park, we hit the road along the west coast. And it rained absolutely all day long. Thankfully we hadn’t plan on doing much except drive since we knew the weather was going to be bad. We wanted to stop at Cape Foulwind, known for its seal colony, but that was before the storm started. No way we were going to walk an hour under such weather.

Another stop was to see the famous Pancake Rocks in Pukaiki. These cliffs are made of several layers of limestone that then fell off. Finally the wind and acide rain did the rest for over 30 million years. The whole is supposed to look like stacks of pancakes. We almost didn’t stop here either because of the weather, but the walk to the view point is really short. So the walk was short indeed, but enough for us to get soaking wet. The site is absolutely beautiful and definitely worth it, the stormy weather actually adds a beautiful chaos to the whole thing.

These cliffs really have a very particular form (not sure if it really looks like stacks of pancakes).

And the big waves crashing in make for an impressive scenery.

The natural spectacle is stunning. Despite the weather we are glad we decided to stop !

We continue to the village of Greymouth, located right on the coast, and stop at a free parking for the night. We are supposed to have a gorgeous view on the ocean from where we parked, but with the storm hitting we can’t see much.

The van moves a lot because of the strong winds, Maider feels like she’s back in some of the night buses in Peru. We get out of the van to go to the restroom only very rarely and always with our swimming suit so our clothes don’t get even wetter than they already are. The night was pretty agitated, the rain and strong winds didn’t stop at all.

To get over the bad weather (it is still raining heavily this morning) Matt prepares some delicious breakfast burritos, enough to give us the strength to face another rainy day.

We go back on the road around 8:30 am, and as we are filling up gas, we learn that the only road South along the west coast (the one we are taking) is closed until further notice. Apparently because of the recent bad weather some areas are flooded. So we continue as far South as we can, the city of Hokitika, where we stop at the information center to get a little more information on the road conditions. When we get there they tell us that they will get an update at 11 am. In the meantime we go to the library to charge all our electronics and work on the blog. Frustrating situation because we know we had a lot of driving to do, but there is nothing we can do besides wait.

At 11 am we learn that the road is still closed and the next update will only be at 3 pm. So we decide to stay the night in Hokitika and pay for a powered campsite with Wi-Fi. That way we can continue working on the blog and figure out how to modify our itinerary from here. It rained all afternoon but at 3 pm we learned that the road re-opened. Good news! That means we will be able to drive South tomorrow.

It finally stops raining in the evening. So we decide to walk to the beach to watch the sunset. The sky is still dark and menacing. We even get rained on on our way to the beach. The beach is huge and very beautiful.

It is still low tide. The colors of the sunset are really pretty.

And with the rain, we can see a beautiful rainbow.

The colors of the sun, with the black sky and this vegetation is stunning.

We wander along the beach and admire the sunset. Amazing.

There is a place where the name of the city is written with branches.

The colors of the sky are exceptional.

Clouds form around the sun and we can see rain falling underneath it.

And these clouds end up bellow the sun, which creates a magical scenery.

The sun gets surrounded by clouds as it continues to set. This is definitely one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen.

Something positive came out of these couple rainy days. We are frustrated to be stuck here but we were able to see a beautiful sunset, and we can hit the road tomorrow! And come on we’re in freakin’ New Zealand how can we complain? We go to bed early, tomorrow is going to be a long day on the road, we have some time to catch up to reach Wanaka further South.

After a day stuck in Hokitika, we can finally continue our route down South. It rained during the night, and keeps on raining during the first few miles. But after an hour, the sky finally clears and we can admire the landscape. The mountains with the clouds and the colors of the sun rising are amazing.

We even get some nice blue sky and great landscapes. This first part of the road is really beautiful. And it really helps to see the sun again.

As announced by the local road service, the road here is one lane only in certain areas because parts of the road collapsed after the severe weather. Pretty impressive. We have to slow down and share the road with the cars coming the opposite direction.

We continue and the landscapes keep being absolutely beautiful on the way. We are in the middle of the mountains.

We are really close to the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers, but we won’t stop to check them out. First we don’t really have the time. And second we saw our fair share of glaciers in Patagonia and are afraid we will be disappointed by these two. Especially since these two have melted pretty badly over the years and you can’t see them as well as you used to.

But we decide to stop by lake Matheson, the famous “mirror lake” because of the reflection of the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately when we get there it rains so we can’t see a thing. So we stay 5 minutes and hop back in the van.

We get a way nicer view at Lake Paringa, where we had planned on sleeping at last night if the road wasn’t closed. Here the sun shines, and we clearly get the mirror effect with the surrounding mountain tops and the clouds in the sky. It is very pretty.

As we keep driving we get close to the ocean, and the sun keeps shining. We drive past a beautiful huge beach.

The road climbs a little bit and we arrive at the Knights Point lookout. From here we have a spectacular view on the ocean and the cliffs.

Not far we stop at Ship Creek. Two small walks start from the parking lot. The first one goes over a sand dune, but also through the beach and the forest.

The beach is very pretty. There are two beautiful lookouts along the way. From the first one we can see the beach on one side and the forest on the other. The contrast between the two landscapes is stunning.

The second lookout is on a lake in the middle of the forest. Also very beautiful.

The second walk goes through a swamp forest. The vegetation is incredible.

There are huge trees in the middle of the swamp. Very beautiful.

In the afternoon we start driving towards the region of Wanaka. The Haast Pass road starts in the tiny village of Haast and joins the West Coast to the region of Wanaka and Queenstown, where we are heading next. The drive is beautiful and follows the Haast river.

The landscape is gorgeous, with the river on one side and the mountains on the other.

We planned to stop at a few places along the route. The first picture stop is at the Thunder Creek waterfall.

And the second at the famous Blue Water Pools. These are turquoise blue rivers. To reach them we pass by suspended bridges.

And the water is truly turquoise blue. It is magnificent.

We continue to another “pool” and the color of the water is even more surreal.

Really spectacular. We stay a while to admire this natural wonder.

We planned on staying in a campsite right near this last stop. Indeed from here starts the hike we wanted to do the next day : Mount Shrimpton. But after calling the tourism center we learn the hike is closed because there is still a lot of snow on the track. Man between the rain and the snow we don’t feel too lucky. But no worries, that just means yet another change of plans! It looks like it might be time to stop planning altogether! Haha. We continue a few miles down to go to a campsite a little further right by the Wanaka lake. We walk a little along this beautiful lake before settling down in our van. It is really nice to be able to stop and sleep in such amazing places. Especially when it doesn’t rain!

We are even treated to magnificent colors during the sunset.

That marks our first steps in the Wanaka and Queenstown region, where some hiking (or tramping as the Kiwis say) is waiting for us

Short video of our journey down the West Coast: