International House of Punakaiki

We visited the pancake rocks at Punakaiki in 2014 and also in 2009. Again, in 2018, we were trying to hit the rocks at high tide, to see the blow-hole in full action. Alas...

Pancakes

Blowhole reservoir

Blowhole...down there...apparently has Monday off...the DOC ranger person
explained that the winds have to be from the southwest (which they were not)
for it to work; I have now officially given up on Punakaiki

Major pancakes

Us, there, at high tide

Double rainbow over the nearby campground later

And a walk on the beach

Road where the washout was (previous post)

Haast Pass And The West Coast, 2

We drove on the next day, February 5th, through Hokitika and Greymouth to the pancake rocks at Punakaika. At last the road returned to the coast and the marvelous seascapes reappeared.

On the beach at favorite Hokitika, site of much of Eleanor Catton's
The Luminaries, a favorite novel; we would have walked the
lovely town, but it was pouring rain, and we needed to be at
Punkaiki for the high tide...

Another one-way bridge

This time shared with trains ("Give Way")

Seascapes...among my favorite bits about NZ

In 2014, we walked out among some of these...at low tide

Still more damage from the cyclone

Keep right

Further down from Panakaiki, a really major washout; but note
that the NZ roads department has characteristically provided for
a bike/pedestrian lane, nonetheless

Haast Pass And The West Coast, 1

After Glenorchy and the Routeburn hike, we decided our business in the south was finished and it was time to head north via the most expeditious route, the west coast. There were surprises along the way...

We drove from Glenorchy back through Queenstown, across
the Crown range again, and stopped to walk a bit of Wanaka;
here, at a lakeside park market

Thunder Creek Falls, near Haast Pass

Among the longer of the many one-way bridges on the South
Island

Opening onto the Tasman Sea

The west coast bush is among the most impenetrable we've seen;
don't even think about the sandflies

Occasional seascape glimpses

Encampment by a historical marker...somebody made it this
far in the expedition of 1846-47

Somehow, it had not occurred to us that the passage of the
cyclone, especially as it made landfall, might have had
consequences for the coast, and for the road...

Even in the best of circumstances; welcome to the west coast

First of several crews removing debris from the road

Lunch time stop in the rain at Lake Mapourika

"Just kayakin' in the rain..."; don't even think about the sandflies

More clean-up; we were impressed with how quickly the whole
long mess of a road was being cleared

Elecctric lines down

Indeed!