Greymouth - day 1

Friday, November 9 – Greymouth – day 1

We got up late and got ready to go for a drive. Around 10 am we started out on Highway 6 North toward Westport. We crossed the river and drove along in cloudy grey skies, through canyons of narrow windy roads. We passed signs advertising coal for sale – slow, medium, and fast – which we think must refer to the time to burn. There were also some adventure guided tours using 4x4 quads. At Rapahoe we again came to the coast and the road was narrow and winding. We came to a lookout which had the Strongman Mine Memorial. It was in recognition of quite a number of miners who lost their life in a mine disaster at that site.

"Coast View from Miners Memorial on Highway 6"

We continued on along the coast where the road flattened out and ran parallel to the beach for many kilometers. After awhile the road got twisty again and then started to alternate between valley and canyon all the way to Punakaiki. We pulled into Punakaiki where they have a walk along the coast to view blowholes and “pancake” rocks. The “pancake” rocks are a formation that looks like some one has stacked thin, flat rocks in high stacks. Scientists have still not figured out how this formation was accomplished. By now the weather had warmed up and we even had some sunshine. That is good for us keeping warm, but it also means the sea is much calmer and the action in the blow holes is quite low. We strolled through the Information Centre and the gift shop, and took lots of pictures.

"Pancake Rocks at Punakaili"

"Ina at Pancake Rocks"

"Blowhole at Punakaili with not much water"

After leaving Punakaiki, we drove along the coast for a few kilometers until we came to Irimahuwhero, which is a lookout, where we pulled off to have out lunch. There were lots of people here and we ate our lunch at the only picnic table. Some people, who were in campervans, were eating their lunch in their vans as well. While we were eating, a large brown flightless bird wandered around, as though we weren’t even there. We did take a couple photos, and later in the day found out this is a supposedly rare bird, called a Weka.

"Wega Bird - apparently a rare bird, but we saw lots of them"

When we finished lunch, we wandered across the road to the lookout and took some pictures. It was an area where people landed on the beach during the gold rush, and then had to climb up the steep cliffs and pull their belongings up behind them. The skies were clearing and the sun was shining as we headed down the road toward Westport. We drove along to just past Charleston and then turned off to Tauranga Bay, where they have a seal colony. We reached the car park at Carter’s Beach and there was a 20 minute walk along the sea coast to the colony. We walked along, and came to the colony and watched the seals playing for quite some time. We took several pictures, but will see if they turn out.

"Seals at Tauranga Bay - can you find 3 of them?"

There were lots of people walking along the trails. After taking pictures of the water and rocks, and some of the plants, we headed back on the road to Cape Foulwind, where they have a lighthouse. As we were leaving the Tauanga Bay, we noticed a group of workers baling hay into large round bales, and using an automated wrapper to wrap them in heavy plastic, so they look like they are in bags.

We got to the car park at Cape Foulwind, and walked up the road to the lighthouse. It is a new lighthouse that operates on solar power, and is fully automated. They did however; leave the base of the original wooden lighthouse that was built in the mid 1800’s. We took some more pictures here.

"Lighthouse at Cape Foulwind near Westport"

We drove into Westport, and on the way, passed a huge plant that was processing raw materials into concrete powder, which they bag and ship overseas.

We stopped in Westport for gas and an ice cream, as there is no gas between there and Greymouth. We then headed back the way we came and had a nice drive in beautiful weather. When we got back to the motel, we did a load of laundry and made another nice dinner, of leftovers from last night. We watched some TV and turned in around 10:00.