Bridget:
After seeing the glaciers, we headed north to a little town called Punakaiki. So far, all the bridges we have crossed have been one-way, with one side’s cars having to “give way” to the other side’s cars. Then we happened to come across this little bridge whose designers decided to incorporate another mode of transportation into the one-way bridge crossing: a train.
Yes, this is known as the “Road & Rail Bridge” in which both cars and train must give way to one another in order to avoid a head-on collision. Fun, fun, fun.
Onward north. Punakaiki is famous for a landform called the “Pancake Rocks,” which other than seeing it on a couple postcards, I didn’t know much about. Turns out it is a bunch of flat layers of limestone rock formed under the sea several thousand years ago. Now they are exposed on the beach for all to see, and several blowholes have also been formed among them. Something else amazing about them is that it is still a mystery to scientists how these rocks got their unique shape.
When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had arrived at the best time to see them: high tide. The rising tide creates an abundance of water flow under the caves and out the blowholes. It made for some pretty impressive shots:
We have seen so many variations in landforms and scenery on this trip, but this place made it to my “Top 3 Things to See on the South Island” list very quickly. The other thing about this area that I found to be so stunning was the gorgeous, lush mountainsides with palm trees scattered about. It really reminded me of the setting for LOST, which was filmed in Hawaii.
On the way to the night’s camping spot, we passed a sign that read “Punakaiki Caverns.” Since we missed out on the Cathedral Caves on the east coast due to hide tide, we had to check this one out. We worked our way through the trees dripping with residual rainfall and into the caves, and started to head back. We abruptly came to a stop, however, when the cave ceilings dropped about three feet and the ground became extremely slick and muddy. We decided not to venture any further but did get a couple good snapshots:
The next day we were able to drive out to see a Seal Colony (one of the many around the South Island). We saw several seals and even some baby ones playing on the rocks and basking in the sun. They are so well camouflaged against the rocks, and much easier to see moving around with your own eyes, but Craig and I were able to pick out at least 24 seals in this next picture. Can you find them?
Next Stop: Hanmer Springs’ Hot Pools
1 comment:
I saw 1 seal, I think
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