Did you ever have a filling like you are in paradise and nothing in the future will impress you more than place you're currently present in? Same "situation" I had yesterday, when I was discovering the Northern West Coast of New Zealand.
Our first station on the Great Coast Road to the north, few minutes before Punakaiki, view on the Tasman sea...
Next station, Punakaiki, a small community on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, between Westport and Greymouth. The community lies on the edge of the Paparoa National Park . Place is best known for its Pancake Rocks and Blowholes – both a spectacular must-see when visiting the West Coast.
What shapes do you recognize?
Pancakes rocks are amazing. The name is very interesting. Probably you want to know why pancakes...
"The Pancake Rocks at Dolomite Point near Punakaiki are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes. The foundations of the Pancake Rocks were formed 30 million years ago when minute fragments of dead marine creatures and plants landed on the seabed about 2 km below the surface. Immense water pressure caused them to solidify into layers of more resistant limestone and softer, thin, mud-rich layers. Gradually seismic action lifted the limestone above the seabed where water, wind and salt spray eroded the softer layers leaving a "pancake" like stack of harder limestone. " (https://www.westcoast.co.nz/plan-your-trip/punakaiki-pancake-rocks-and-blow-holes/)
Penguins or birds?
Next station, few min away from Pancake Rocks, was short Truman's walk through unspoiled sub-tropical forest, and it will bring you to the paradise!
The track ends at a cliff overlooking the Tasman Sea. Weather is still not enough warm (15°C and windy), and water is so cold, but I couldn't resist to take off my shoes and soak my feet! :)
My friend Max was enough brave to take a swim! I'm proud of him :D He even had a company of seal, but he escaped in a moment and we don't have a pictured memory. :(
You can spent a day there swimming, climbing on the rocks around the beach...
...or just chilling and enjoying this spectacular nature scenes and sound of waves knocking on the rocks.
After swimming and chilling on this beautiful paradise beach our next station was 12 km north of Punakaiki - 2:30 hours long Fox River Cave Walk. Walkway was so muddy and slippery and a little dangerous, and also it involve few river crossings so probably you will be wet.
"The area's oldest tourist attraction, this safe cave has a 200 m passage, beautifully decorated with calcite formations which have developed over thousands of years. There is another lower cave, but this is dangerous to enter due to falling rocks and sheer drops in the floor." (http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/west-coast/places/paparoa-national-park/things-to-do/tracks/punakaiki-area-walks/#fox)
It was scary, but amazing filling wriggle wet rocks inside the dark cave. This is how inside cave looks like.
We finished our day looking the sunset in Granity, but this will be in next post. I believe you're also impressed with those nature formations! Please leave the comments how you like it and how you feel looking on it... Upvote if you like it! :D
You can see more beautiful places of New Zealand nature in my previous posts:
Little River Rail Trail
https://steemit.com/travel/@mateyav/i-wish-i-m-a-bird
Pacific Ocean
https://steemit.com/photography/@mateyav/nature-is-an-incomprehensible-miracle-3-pacific-ocean-2017823t152227872z
Hokitika Gorge
https://steemit.com/travel/@mateyav/nature-is-so-incomprehensible-miracle-2017819t224612976z
All the best!
Mateya