As suspected, Wednesday dawned bright, clear and sunny. Pah! The main highway we were travelling on had apparently reopened, so muttering about the weather gods, we set off for Punakaiki. Along the way we detoured to the Nelson lakes to see Lake Roititi, which Chris had seen cool pictures of. We didn't hang around, however, as an electronic road sign (of which there aren't many!) had said the highway was still closed. On the way out from the lakes we did our good deed for the day and picked up a hitchhiker we had seen sat on the road on the way there. He was a very nice English lad on his way to a music festival for new year. He was telling us what the weather had been like in the very still town we had passed through a few days earlier - unbelievable! We stopped off in one town to that had an i-Site to check on the roads, and sure enough, there were all open, so we continued onwards but only once coffee had been located.
Having dropped our companion off, we found our way to Punakaiki on a blustery but very sunny afternoon, arriving at a small hostel RIGHT on the beach The guy on reception is hysterical. Not quite sure how to describe him, but he is definitely a parody of a German/Dutch fashionista character somewhere. Maybe that guy from Beverly Hills Cop in the modern art place? Much hilarity. We went up to the Pancake Rocks and blowholes nearby, which are quite something else. The best time to see the effects of the blowholes is just before high tide, so we went to a nearby cafe for a coffee to pass the time. At one point Chris happened to glance down the road and couldn't believe her eyes when she was the lovely Israeli couple crossing the road! They had got stuck in the road closures (well, bridge collapses would be a better description) the previous day and had just stopped off here for a break on their way to Hokitika and, co-incidentally, the same hostel we will be going to next (tho they will have moved on again).
So we went back to watch the blowholes at high tide which were brilliant with the waves from the end-of-storm-high-winds, getting a bit damp but having fun from the spray, then headed back. After a rather lovely bolognese cooked up by Andy accompanied by a rather lovely wine from Renwick, we went to the beach to watch a fantastic sunset - along with almost everyone else at this end of Punakaiki, it would seem from the amount of people on the beach!
Don't think we mentioned - our "room" here is actually a gypsy-style wooden caravan! It's very cool. But, obviously you can hear everything, and the crashing waves from the tail-end-of-storm winds were a tad loud, so Chris didn't get a lot of sleep. Just to rub it in, a couple had pitched a tent about 1 metre from our van, and she could hear the guy in there snoring - even above the waves! Mental note to get ear plugs out of a bag in the car for tomorrow. And maybe drink more :o)
Thursday morning was still nice, so we both went off for a run along a nearby path that loops around the hill behind us, which was great and had a big muckle climb in the middle. On our return, we freed a couple of homemade muffins for sale in the hostel (see previous comment about rounded-ness!). The afternoon was spent wandering along the beach, then a wee catnap to make up for the lack of sleep the previous night, before heading off for one last high tide look at the blowholes. Except this time there is much less wind and the sea was so calm there was nothing really to see - thank goodness we went out yesterday! Tomorrow we head to Hokitika to see in the New Year on another beack - hopefully! A little different from the Nine Mile Burn all-nighters of previous years!!
Having dropped our companion off, we found our way to Punakaiki on a blustery but very sunny afternoon, arriving at a small hostel RIGHT on the beach The guy on reception is hysterical. Not quite sure how to describe him, but he is definitely a parody of a German/Dutch fashionista character somewhere. Maybe that guy from Beverly Hills Cop in the modern art place? Much hilarity. We went up to the Pancake Rocks and blowholes nearby, which are quite something else. The best time to see the effects of the blowholes is just before high tide, so we went to a nearby cafe for a coffee to pass the time. At one point Chris happened to glance down the road and couldn't believe her eyes when she was the lovely Israeli couple crossing the road! They had got stuck in the road closures (well, bridge collapses would be a better description) the previous day and had just stopped off here for a break on their way to Hokitika and, co-incidentally, the same hostel we will be going to next (tho they will have moved on again).
So we went back to watch the blowholes at high tide which were brilliant with the waves from the end-of-storm-high-winds, getting a bit damp but having fun from the spray, then headed back. After a rather lovely bolognese cooked up by Andy accompanied by a rather lovely wine from Renwick, we went to the beach to watch a fantastic sunset - along with almost everyone else at this end of Punakaiki, it would seem from the amount of people on the beach!
Don't think we mentioned - our "room" here is actually a gypsy-style wooden caravan! It's very cool. But, obviously you can hear everything, and the crashing waves from the tail-end-of-storm winds were a tad loud, so Chris didn't get a lot of sleep. Just to rub it in, a couple had pitched a tent about 1 metre from our van, and she could hear the guy in there snoring - even above the waves! Mental note to get ear plugs out of a bag in the car for tomorrow. And maybe drink more :o)
Thursday morning was still nice, so we both went off for a run along a nearby path that loops around the hill behind us, which was great and had a big muckle climb in the middle. On our return, we freed a couple of homemade muffins for sale in the hostel (see previous comment about rounded-ness!). The afternoon was spent wandering along the beach, then a wee catnap to make up for the lack of sleep the previous night, before heading off for one last high tide look at the blowholes. Except this time there is much less wind and the sea was so calm there was nothing really to see - thank goodness we went out yesterday! Tomorrow we head to Hokitika to see in the New Year on another beack - hopefully! A little different from the Nine Mile Burn all-nighters of previous years!!
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