We woke to the sound of rain this morning. It seems that for every good day we have to deal with 2 bad. Well today we travelled to Punakaiki with a couple of stops planned. We are not thrilled to be travelling in rain nor trying to have a look at the Lighthouse and seals at Cape Foulwind.
Apparently this area was first charted by Captain Cook (what part of New Zealand was not?) and the winds in this area were so foul he called it Foulwind and thus the name has stuck. The Lighthouse itself was first set up on Cape Foulwind in 1876 and was a wooden structure. This means that during the shipping era for the Gold Rush this Cape had no lighthouse on it. However now the automated lighthouse has replaced the original manned one and it guides ships to the Buller.
We discovered that this area has a large population of Weta birds (flightless birds that look like a Kiwi) and they were everywhere as we walked along the trail. The trail itself went up beside the lighthouse and then along the coastline following the cliffs to the area where we could see the seals. The distance for this walk was 2.9 km each way which is a really nice walk in good weather. However, as we started to walk along the coastline the rain started and the wind was very strong. We wondered at one point if we should just turn back, but decided it was worth a look so continued.
As you can imagine we only saw one person on the trail and that was a worker cutting the grass along the trail. However, as we arrived at the seal viewing points we found several people. This made us realize that there was a different parking lot involving a 5 minute walk to the viewing platforms just down the road from where we had parked. Of course those people did not get to see the lighthouse or the views along the coastline like we did. Many did not even look around the other corner of the platforms to realize there was a signpost with the distances to several areas of the world. Vancouver is 10, 391 km from this area.
We returned to the van and continued on to Punakaiki which is where the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes are found. Less than 5 minutes away is a camper park that we had decided to stay at for tonight and enjoy checking out the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes. We had thought that we should wait until morning since the rain increased in volume and the wind was sending it sideways at us. However, we were informed that the best time to see the Blow Holes was when the seas were rough and believe me, they are rough today. So we decided to head over there this afternoon and just suck it up with the weather.
The walk around was not long but the views were splendid. The first blowhole we came to was not as spectacular as it could have been since high tide was at 1 and it was now 2:30ish so we did not get the full benefit. However, it was fun to watch as we walked along the path to find more action. The reason for the area being called Pancake Rocks is obvious when you see how the stone is layered in narrow layers and stacked high.
By the time we got to see a couple of blowholes in action (and yes the spray was high and foamy) and had a look at some of the formations of the Pancake Rocks we realized that we were getting totally drenched. The rain continued to fall and the wind was blowing everything into us. I brought along my old camera but still I stopped taking pictures since everything was getting so wet. So these pictures really do not display all that we saw.
We finally decided that it was great to see, but we needed to leave and get dry. We also decided that we will return tomorrow (if the weather improves) to re-walk the paths and take more pictures. So we headed back to the campsite.
This campsite has a drying room with a wood heater so we are drying out the clothes there. By 4:30 the rain stopped and the sun tried to peak out around the clouds. We decided to take a walk down to the beach beside the trailer park and have a look. We found that there were several families doing the same. One family was building a sand hut and the walls were already about 2 feet tall. Another family was using the reeds to weave walls and were building a type of hut using support sticks. A third family was playing at the edge of the water jumping in and out of the waves. The waves were large and rough looking as the wind was still strong. Unfortunately I had not brought down my camera thinking that we would find a deserted beach so I did not get any pictures. Maybe tomorrow we will return and take the camera.
Shortly after the rain returned so everyone headed for cover. This has not been a stellar day weather-wise but we did find some interesting things to do. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny.
No comments:
Post a Comment