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Day 8 - Tuesday 26 February – Pancake rocks

Spent lots of time in the bus today travelling along the West Coast from Nelson to Greymouth. It was a stunning journey up through mountain foothills taking in river views, and then on to coastal beach stops and sea views. During the nineteenth-century when gold drew prospectors from all over the world, the west coast was one of the busiest and richest areas. We passed through Westport and Murchison.

We saw New Zealand fur seals at Cape Foulwind and dolphins from a distance at Punakaiki today. The ‘Hector’s’ dolphins were the smallest species of all dolphins and they were jumping up out of the water spinning around. Amazing. We saw our good friends the Wekars too.

We went for a riverside walk up the Pororari River Track and then along to the Punakaiki ‘pancake rocks’; so-called because they resembled stacked up pancakes with row upon row of horizontal sedimentary rock forming the cliffs that overlooked the beach.

We arrived at the Ashley Hotel in Greymouth where we stayed the night and dined at an Australian bar over the rail track which ran down the middle of the road. It was a good day.

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