Day 17 Sunday, September 12 -- Pancake Rocks, Buller Gorge, and Hanmer Springs

Synopsis

We visited the Pancake Rocks, an interesting geological feature along the coast that consisted of layered rocks that supposedly look like a giant stack of pancakes. The waves crashing on the rocks was an impressive sight. We then drove northeast along the Buller River into the Buller Gorge where we stopped to take a zipline “supaman”-style (note the spelling). We were really looking forward to this experience, but it turned out to be lame. We then drove towards the east coast, stopping in Hanmer Springs to soak in their famous hot springs. We ended up in Kaikoura (a couple of hours north of Christchurch on the east coast) where we had booked a whale-watching cruise early the next morning.

Detailed Journal

We were up around 7am again this morning. We refreshed the van, grabbed some breakfast, got dressed and headed for the Punakaiki pancake rocks and blowholes. We learned from a fellow camper that high tide was in about an hour, so we were pretty excited since high tide is the best viewing time. We walked along the 10-minute stroll that lead to Dolomite Point, where the pancake rocks are located. We then found that not only was it high tide, but the surf was definitely up, dude. This made for a great show as the waves crashed against a myriad of rocks and shot water spraying into the air, and in some cases through holes in the ground (thus the blowholes). It was not only a treat to the eyes, but also the ears as the power of the ocean created thunderous drumming that actually shook the ground. It was quite a sight. We could have stayed there and watched the different pools, chasms, rock formations and blowholes all day, but there was more to see, so we headed back to the van.

We decided not to do any hikes in Paparua National Park (the night before we had considered a couple of hikes to some limestone cliffs and some caves), but headed straight for Westport. We took a diversion to see a seal colony on Cape Foulwind, which was well worth the time and effort. We saw dozens of seals on the rocks below (about 50 meters away). A few of them were wrestling around, and we guessed it was “family itch hour” because many of them were scooching around on the rocks or scratching their ears with their flippers. It was loads of fun to watch, they were so cute! Again, we resisted the temptation to stay all day and hit the road.

We headed on to Westport before realizing that we had missed the turnoff for Buller Gorge. We turned around and were on our way up the gorge, which was not quite as much of a gorge as we were expecting. It was a pretty enough valley, but we were expecting more sheer cliffs. There were a few parts that were gorge-ish, but not necessarily gorgeous. It was a far cry from The Royal Gorge in Colorado. It was still a nice enough drive, and at a couple of points we had to drive on a one way portion around a blind cliff face, one of which had overhanging rock. It was a bit unnerving, but kind of fun, too.

Something we were both looking forward to was the Buller Gorge Swingbridge and Zipline. The swingbridge is the longest of its type in New Zealand, and on the way back, you have the option of gliding across on the zipline. When we arrived, it was immediately anticlimactic as we were the only guests. Jason decided to go ahead and try the zipline “supaman” style and Lynette followed suit. We paid, the made our way across the bridge, then on a 15-minute nature loop walk that included a walk up a faultline (which was a narrow trough that went above our heads, kind of freaky), and an old mineshaft, which was a rusty tin shack around a hole that looked about 5 meters deep. This walk began to explain the absence of any other guests, but we headed for the zipline to get our adrenaline going. Lynette went first while Jason took pictures. Then it was Jason’s turn while Lynette took the camera. The amount of adrenaline flow was, to be generous, barely perceptible. We took a look at the pictures that the ride attendent had taken, and passed on the $10 disk o’ pictures. We both left thoroughly disappointed. This was supposed to be one of the highlights of the west coast. Oh well, the west coast was otherwise more full of highlights than we expected.

We drove down to Springs Junction where we stopped to call Mt. Cook Ski Planes, again. Franz Josef’s weather reportedly looked bad for the next few days. The lady did mention there was a chance that flights would be nice from Mt. Cook on Tuesday afternoon and perhaps we could head in that direction and give them a call tomorrow.

We then called Whale Watch Kaikoura to set up a tour in the hopes of seeing Sperm Whales tomorrow at 715am. We went into the small café in Springs Junction and bought a moccacino and vanilla milkshake. Both left a little to be desired for $3.50 each. We then got back on the road towards Kaikoura.

At the suggestion of the Mt. Cook lady, we took a side trip to enjoy a soak in the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. We decided to get a private tub to ourselves to ensure a quite, relaxing soak without the screaming kids that were running around the place. After our half-hour was up, we moved on to the hottest sulfur spring, which we think was set at about 40 deg C (about 104 deg F). It was nice! A very satisfying diversion that helped warm our bones that had been frozen and/or soaked over the past several days (where were the hot pools at the end of the Routeburn Track or at the bottom of Fox Glacier!?).

We headed in the dark down a twisty, not-well-marked road towards Kaikoura where we had reserved a campsite by phone from Hanmer Springs. The drive was a bit freaky, but we were comforted by the voice of Ryan Seacrest and the “A. T. 40”. We were thrilled that although we had flown 14 hours around the world that we could still get America’s Top 40 (please note the sarcasm that’s lost in the writing). We made it safely to Kaikoura, found the holiday park and settled in for the evening. We had leftover steak from the Beefeater in Queenstown and some leftover Mexican, nacho style. Mmmm, mmmm. We then set the alarms on our cell phones and caught some quick z’s before an early rise for whale watching the following morning.

Pictures

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