We started the day at the carpark. The weather app told us the day before sunshine well guess what that didn’t happen? There was lots of rain and heavy wind. So quick breakfast with yoghurt and no coffee…?after a while the rain stopped so did we at a viewpoint along the road.
Then the rain started again so quick return in the van and move on to our first stop for the day, the pancake rocks of Punakaiki. They even have a blowhole there yeah!
Blowholes and pancakes
This time we’re lucky it’s hightide so the blowhole is active. The rumbling from the caves came alive. Something I can’t show with a picture sadly. But it’s a deep rollin bass sound.
There was even more luck for us. We saw a Possum in real life. Normally you see them at night while driving or during the day dead on the road. Now at daylight a brutal possum was eating a lot in plain sight!
Pancakes and coffee
After the pancakes i needed a coffee and we decided to get one and eat some pancakes as well. We can’t go by the pancake rocks without eating them?. Smart man who started the pancake restaurant at that spot! And guess what we met another bee van ?!
Truman track
After our meal we continued our way to the next stop a real beach beauty named the Truman track. It’s a short walk through the jungle and you’ll end at a small beach. To bad it rained a lot at that moment. I knew it rains a lot but the view is worth it to get soaked! At the beach you’ll see a real beachwaterfall. It’s a small one pouring over a small cove of limestone. When you follow the sculpted limestone around the corner there is a small cave. Well small kinda big and pirate style, imagine a fire and some pirates discuss where to hide the treasure. There was a curious sealion playing in the waves ? as well. We’ve seen to many already but it stays fun to watch!
Snowy mountaintops
We decided to drive a bigger part because of all the rain. While driving we saw that the first snow had fallen on the mountaintops❄️
Maruia falls
We ended up at the Maruia falls. My girlfriend thinks this fall is realy ugly and not worth a visit, I think beauty isn’t everything this one is real power after lots of rain. Guess what we had!? the falls can change dramatically depending the days rainfall first it can be gentle and have multiple channels after many rain it will be a raging ? spewing brown torrent! In this state the water in the pool is dangerous. Don’t fall in because it will drag you to the bottem of the pool. But the story the signs won’t tell is the history of the falls. It’s originated due to a earthquake around 1930. But can this be from a landslide? No the fun fact is in real early days this fall was already there but the ice age re-routed the riverstream. Nature corrected itself by this earthquake and voila there was the former fall again?
We called it a day at our last stop in Takaka on our way to Abel Tasman to get some sleep ?
