18/2 DAY 10 Punakaki "Pancake Rocks + Fish & Chips"

Hejsan,

The 10th day of my Active New Zealand trip started with breakie at 7.30 in the morning, before we boarded Nancy to drive north along the west coast. Our first stop came quite fast, as a beautiful morning mist was hovering over a lake that we past, quickly out and in to take a couple of photos.

Next stop was in the small town of Hokitika where we had aprox 1 hour to stroll around in the shops or have a coffee. I took the oportunity to transfere some of my photos to a DVD, to get some free space on my memory cards.

Then we made a longer stop in Greymouth to visit the Monteith's brewerie, we had a one hour tour of the brewerie. The tour ended in a pub where we got to taste all the different beers they made :-)

After the beer tour we drove north to Punakaki where this days main event was a hike through some of the temperate rain forest. Just a stunning experiennce with lime stone cliffs (kalkstensklippor) big ferns, and djungel like mixture of plants and trees. The trail took about 2 hours and ended with a river crossing that got our shoes soaking wet.

After checking in to the motel me, Callum, Shelagh and Amy went for a swim at the nearby beach. Big wawes and decent water temperature made it a really mnice experience. Back at the Motel it was time for a shower before we headed to a restaurant to eat the National dish of Fish and Chips (Much like in England). Before dinner though we had a quickk stroll along a coast walk to look at the lime stone (kalksten) formations by the sea called "Pancake Rocks".

Back at the motel it was time to organize the packing for out three day hike in Nelson Lakes National Park, an adventure that I will describe for you later :-)

Ha re toppen!!
/Martin