Punakaiki Rocks

We began in Westport this morning and decided to hike to a seal colony – not really a hike – just 15 minutes.  This 15 minutes turned into an hour or more since we went out to a lighthouse as well.  The views were absolutely stunning.  We saw seals, but even better, we saw lots and lots of seal babies, waddling along the rocks!  

After this hike, we headed south and turned off for the Truman Track.  This walk takes you to the coast where the waves crashing into a cove are absolutely deafening.  Every view on this coast is better than the last!  We stayed here longer than we planned because it was so spectacular.  

And then, we finally got to Punakaiki Rocks – pancake rocks where the water comes in to blowholes and crashes up against them.  Today was amazing because the waves were crashing in at the right angle.  The chimney pot was a place where water would get into this cave and squeeze it’s way into a small hole and it looked like a volcano!  So many amazing things!  I know I keep using these adjectives to describe something that really is indescribable.  

After this, we lunched with the wekas and seagulls and made our way to this fun hostel called Birdsong.  We’ll stay here 2 nights because we’ll drive to Arthur’s Pass tomorrow.  We are directly across the street from the beach so that’s where we’re heading tonight to watch the sunset.  We also went into town for groceries and looked at some jade which is mined near here.