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| Welcome to Ross town! |
The physical exhaustion from heaving ourselves around on the ice all afternoon, kept us quiet, but our minds were alert, anticipating our move and next nice warm meal as we left the Franz Joseph Glacier carpark. Watching out for the deadly Kea, we jumped back in the Austin Powers van and set off North towards the little town of Ross. Yes the Ross's were going to Ross town!
We arrived not long after sunset. Much to our dismay the town had shut down for the night. The street lights were almost all off, stores bolted closed and the local petrol station was even out of meat pies. There were only small yellow glows coming from the kitchen windows of homes tucked along the roadside. Disheartened we had little choice but to open a can of cold chickpeas and some dehydrated beans mixing them with sweet and sour wok sauce for dinner. What a shame. As we parked up in the street a little grumpy at our misfortune, we plotted our next move.
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| A single ray of sun between the clouds |
It was early the next morning when we were back on the road again with the intention of driving forward to Blenheim. In order to get there, we had a lot of road in front of us. So as the spring fog still lingered across the wet paddocks, we were off! It was a grey, wet morning, the air outside was cold and the ongoing drizzle of rain had formed condensation on the inside of the van, which was occasionally dripping on our heads.
Everything felt humid and opening the windows made little difference. We hadn't slept well on the uncomfortable seats and this morning our stiff joints and sore muscles weren't cooperating with us at all. As we drove, stretching as much as we could in the limited space, we passed cyclists making their way along the road, wet and bothered. The road was boarded by the ocean to our left and beautiful, lush green forest to our right.
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| One way bridge WITH a train track in the middle! |
We made our first stop along the west coast road at Greymouth, which was unsurprising on this wet morning pretty bleaking ‘grey’. However it wasn't the weather that the town gets its name from but actually the river Grey, which runs down through the town and out to sea.
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| and it's closed.... |
On closer inspection the river was pretty dark almost black so it couldn't have been named for its colour. Greymouth is the largest town on the West Coast with a population of around 9,800 and sits on the narrow coastal plains under the snow-capped southern alps.
Getting there wasn't easy with nerve-wracking oneway bridges and plenty of busted traffic lights and today we couldn't see a thing as the clouds hung so low. Surely on a clear day, the harbour town must be stunning!
Like many other big settlements in the South, local Maori tribes lived in the area for a considerable time before European settlement, and called the area Māwhera. As a short history, it was later in 1846, that the first Europeans arrived and discovered coal and gold.
Coal mining became a major factor in the town's early European history and supplied work to most of the town inhabitants. The town today still mines and also has a local brewery, Monteith's, which has produced beer since 1868, now world famous in New Zealand of course! That was our first stop, a bit of apple cider would go down a treat. Pulling in, our mouths were already dry in anticipation but well, we were far too early! It was only 8.30am on a weekday morning and they hadn't yet opened for the day. Hoping to return for a tour in the future we fluffed around a little looking for a public toilet and were soon back on the road, ready to clock up some more kilometers. Our next stop for the morning was Paparoa National Park to see the famous pancake rocks!
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| Paparoa Park |
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| Following the highway |
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| Stacked like pancakes |
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| Unusual rock formations, Punakaiki |
Made up from minute fragments of dead marine creatures and plants which landed on the seabed about 2 km below the surface. Immense water pressure caused the fragments to solidify in hard and soft layers. Gradually seismic action lifted the limestone above the seabed. Mildly acidic rain, wind and seawater sculpted the unusual rocks into the strangely unsatisfying pancakes we could see!
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| There she blows! |
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| Anyone have some chocolate sauce for these pancakes? |
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| Enjoying the fresh air! |
After parking up, we walked over to the rocks hoping to see some great blowhole action! There are supposed to be areas where the sea bursts through several vertical holes during high tides. Luckily for us, it was high tide and as it was a little wet and stormy we could see bits of the salty spray splashing up! It was very cold out on the viewing platform, beautiful in the strange sea mist but cold!
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| Can you spot the faces? |
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| Looking between the rocks |
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| Wet, wild and misty coastline |
So after following the boardwalks through the scrub we returned to the visitors centre to read up on the formations and warm up a little!
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| Sizing up the weka bird |
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| Exploring the pancake rocks |
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| Wild Coastline, Tasman sea |
After another toilet stop we made our way back to the van and were suddenly approached by two weka birds or woodhens. A flightless bird, native to New Zealand, that looks far more menacing than they actually are.
A little nervous at their bold curiosity, we watched the cheeky birds come closer, looking for food. Shame we didn't have anything to share and after our run-in last night with the Kea we didn't particularly want to wait around to see how a hungry weka bird behaves!
Deciding to aim for a late lunch at Lake Rotoiti we set off 'on the road again!' Intending to arrive by 1pm we had to really pull finger out and so taking state highway six we were off!
Tot siens,
John and Kara
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