We left early in the morning for a long day of driving along the west coast. Our first stop was Hokitika where we fuelled up and had a brief drive around the old gold mining town.
Next, on to Punakaiki to see the Pancake rocks! Sounds like a strange name? Well, the rock formations were even wierder and still a slight mystery to scientists! They looked amazing, like flat layer on top of flat layer of rock, sculptured into strange and mysterious shapes.
The coastal route from here, north, is voted in the top 6 top stretches of coastal scenery to see in Lonely Planet's Blue List... So this is the route we followed! The scenery was great and we passed through lots of small gold mining towns. But, our next stop was Westport. A quaint little town ... but we were on the move and didn't spend too much time there.
From here we took the inland route to Murchison. This is the home of New Zealand's longest swing bridge. We took a quick peak but moved on so we could set up camp before dark. Eventually, we arrived at a small campsite on the former Kawatiri railway site!
Next, on to Punakaiki to see the Pancake rocks! Sounds like a strange name? Well, the rock formations were even wierder and still a slight mystery to scientists! They looked amazing, like flat layer on top of flat layer of rock, sculptured into strange and mysterious shapes.
The coastal route from here, north, is voted in the top 6 top stretches of coastal scenery to see in Lonely Planet's Blue List... So this is the route we followed! The scenery was great and we passed through lots of small gold mining towns. But, our next stop was Westport. A quaint little town ... but we were on the move and didn't spend too much time there.
From here we took the inland route to Murchison. This is the home of New Zealand's longest swing bridge. We took a quick peak but moved on so we could set up camp before dark. Eventually, we arrived at a small campsite on the former Kawatiri railway site!
