Today was another full day.
We started with a drive from Nelson to Kaiteriteri which is the hub for many Abel Tasman boat adventures. Abel Tasman is a beautiful national park at the north of the South Island that has sandy beaches, hiking trails, kayaking tours, and other fun water activities. Unfortunately for us the weather has turned rainy. Many of the locations in the park can only be reached by boat, so many companies run regular water taxis throughout the day that stop at different times at each beach so that you can hike from beach to beach and catch a taxi when you are finished. We decided to just tour the coast line by water taxi and not get off to hike today. It was a lovely boat ride! They took us past the famous Split Apple Rock, by an island that has many seal families hanging out on the rocks - pups included, and gave a bit of history about the area and each of the beaches.
Out next stop, ultimately on the way to Greymouth, was the Buller Gorge Swing bridge. I was a bit disappointed that we had to pay to go across New Zealands longest swing bridge, but it broke up our 4 hour trip, and was fun to explore the river bed on the other side of the bridge. Luke and Alyssa took the exciting zipline back across the river, while the rest of us took the bridge.
Our second stop before Greymouth was Punakaiki - the pancake rocks. This was the highlight of the day for me. The rough ocean carved stacks-of-pancake type formations into the limestone deposits along the coast. There was a gorgeous - free - walk with multiple viewing points of the rocks. It was really cool to see the rock bridges formed below us and hear the ocean booming in the caves and cut outs. I'm very glad we made the stop.
We're finally in Greymouth, stationed here to go to Shantytown tomorrow and then on to Franz Josef for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
We started with a drive from Nelson to Kaiteriteri which is the hub for many Abel Tasman boat adventures. Abel Tasman is a beautiful national park at the north of the South Island that has sandy beaches, hiking trails, kayaking tours, and other fun water activities. Unfortunately for us the weather has turned rainy. Many of the locations in the park can only be reached by boat, so many companies run regular water taxis throughout the day that stop at different times at each beach so that you can hike from beach to beach and catch a taxi when you are finished. We decided to just tour the coast line by water taxi and not get off to hike today. It was a lovely boat ride! They took us past the famous Split Apple Rock, by an island that has many seal families hanging out on the rocks - pups included, and gave a bit of history about the area and each of the beaches.
Out next stop, ultimately on the way to Greymouth, was the Buller Gorge Swing bridge. I was a bit disappointed that we had to pay to go across New Zealands longest swing bridge, but it broke up our 4 hour trip, and was fun to explore the river bed on the other side of the bridge. Luke and Alyssa took the exciting zipline back across the river, while the rest of us took the bridge.
Our second stop before Greymouth was Punakaiki - the pancake rocks. This was the highlight of the day for me. The rough ocean carved stacks-of-pancake type formations into the limestone deposits along the coast. There was a gorgeous - free - walk with multiple viewing points of the rocks. It was really cool to see the rock bridges formed below us and hear the ocean booming in the caves and cut outs. I'm very glad we made the stop.
We're finally in Greymouth, stationed here to go to Shantytown tomorrow and then on to Franz Josef for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.