Punakaiki to Franz Josef Glacier

July 20, 2009

I love the town of Punakaiki, I really do. It may be one of my favorite places on this planet. I went there five years ago and my return felt just as magical, if not more so. We woke up this morning to the smell of baked muffins. We got up and got ready, heading downstairs to sample the muffins. Monday apparently means chocolate chip day. Yay! We each ate one of the muffins, brewed up some tea and walked outside to the Truman Track.

Te Nikau Retreat is right next to the Paparoa National Park and the Truman Track is part of the park. We followed along the path, which is absolutely stunning. Punakaiki is in the middle of the rainforest so the vegetation is especially lush and green. Somehow, the rains stayed away and we had blue sky overhead as we followed the rainforest path towards the beach. I read a sign saying that little blue penguins nest at the beach starting in August and I was hoping that they might be a wee bit early. No such luck but we did get to see my favorite beach anywhere on this planet. I took pictures from it 5 years ago and they were by far my favorite pictures on the trip. This time was no different. The tide was in so there was no beach walk this time. However, this was not a problem because the waves crashing against the rocks was so spectacular that we didn’t need to be walking on sand in order to see it. Raven made a comment that she had never before heard waves that actually ‘crash’. It is an awesome sound, truly, hearing the slamming of the surf on the rocks. It really does sound like something has run into a rock. In addition to the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks, we also got to listen to my favorite sound in New Zealand. The waves were loud so it was kind of hard to hear but because Punakaiki has little pebbles instead of sand grains, when the water recedes from the beach, the sound effect is of thousands of rain sticks. I heard this last time when I was in Punakaiki and in Kaikoura and I loved hearing it again. Raven heard it too. We took tons of pictures of the waves and the beach and I took a handful of sand again (well, little pebbles, not sand). I really can’t describe this beach and this experience enough. We were truly blessed to be able to witness it. I could truly spend days staying there, which is kind of funny because New Zealanders often comment, “Punakaiki? Why would you stay there?” After our beach walk we headed back into the forest and spent quite a while walking among the trees taking pictures. We were as content walking under the green canopy as we were walking near the beach.

We returned to Te Nikau and got into the car so that we could see the Pancake Rocks (what Punakaiki is famous for). Other people at the backpacker were commenting that now was the time to go see them because the tide was in and the blowholes would be in full force. We headed over and walked along the trail to the rocks. I did this five years ago as well and I’m sure I got similar pictures. It was breathtaking and all, but somehow paled in comparison to my little beach at Te Nikau.

After exploring the Pancake Rocks (and we didn’t eat pancakes, although we’d considered it) we went to the requisite gift shop and then we were on our way. Being the ‘navigator’, I had planned for us to stay the night in Hotitika, which was further down the coast of the Tasman Sea. I had considered it to be a decent drive from Westport (our original plan) and we got there in the early morning. Um, no. I suggested that we try to go far down the coast to Franz Josef Glacier because it felt like we could cover more miles and I remembered liking the backpacker there the last time I was in NZ. We decided to go for it and although we’d originally pulled out brochures about Hotitika, we breezed right through it. In fact, we only stopped in Greymouth for a moment for gas and cash (no ATMs further south for a while). Around 1 pm, as I was eating an apple, Raven asked if we should stop for lunch. We thought of staying in a picnic area but couldn’t find one so we stopped randomly along the road. We made quick sandwiches in the car and ate alongside the road. Even though it’s one of the main arterials through the South Island on the West Coast, it was very quiet. Hardly any cars passed us.

As we were driving along Highway 6, we passed a sign advertising “The Bushman Centre” 6 km in the distance. It triggered a memory for me from my last trip when we’d stopped there on the bus. It is a weird place that specializes in possum pies and other random animal pies, has a bunch of animals not native to NZ in pens outside (like a deer, a tarn and some wallabies) and a possum museum. We’re talking strange. We went in and ordered hot red currant drinks and stretched our legs for a while. We then decided to spend $4 each on the possum museum, which was certainly not worth it. Te Papa is free! What were we thinking? The possum museum is a room in the back of the place that has a boardwalk where you walk amongst stuffed animals everywhere. I was on my way out the door, not particularly impressed, when Raven let out a big yelp. I turned around and she had hot red currant spilled on her sweater and her hair was wet. WTF? Apparently, she’d pulled a lever that promised a ‘weta experience’. For those of you not familiar with NZ, wetas are huge nocturnal insects native to NZ. When she pulled the lever, a bunch of water dumped on her head … it was a pun and not so funny joke. For Americans, that wouldn’t make an ounce of sense but when you don’t pronounce the final ‘r’ in words, weta and wetter sound the same. Har har. We immediately left and it kind of put a damper on the afternoon.

We headed on again and I tried valiantly to stay awake but failed miserably. I had mentioned stopping at the Mirror Lakes near Franz Josef and I happened to open my eyes right at the sign advertising the lakes and pointed it out to Raven. We pulled off and saw that the lake water was rough so the mirror effect wasn’t apparent. Instead of looking at a not so interesting lake (darn lack of mirror effect) we decided to journey on to Franz Josef Glacier. We pulled up at the YHA and booked a room and then went for a walk in the town. This town rivals Punakaiki in smallness, having only two major streets (one of them highway 6) so the walk didn’t take us long.

Raven went up to the room to rest for a while and I grabbed a book and sat OUTSIDE to read. We’re near the mountains and yet it was warm enough to read in July (which is like January at home). I took some pictures of the mountains among the clouds and when it got dark and cold (sun went away) I came in to read some more. Raven came to find me an hour or so later and we went out to a local pub to get some dinner AND participate in Quiz Night. I had seen a sign advertising it and I just had to partake in this Kiwi experience. Luckily, I was able to twist Raven’s arm and get her to do this. The categories were Michael Jackson albums, Potluck, Science and Nature, Sports, History, Music, TV and Movies and Artsy Fartsy. We got to choose two categories where we could get double points and we chose Science and Nature and History. We got all of the Science and Nature questions right, which I was quite excited about, and most of the history questions. When we first started, one of the first questions was “Lake Tahoe borders which two states?” to which I did a little dance as I definitely knew it. The MC saw me and said, “We don’t happen to have a couple of Americans here tonight, do we?” He then said, “Well, it’s better than Australians,” to which a bunch of people shouted out at him (must have been Australians). There was a ‘baffler’ question where they would give out clues each round and you’d have to guess the answer. In our case, it was a year they were looking for. Raven put 1888 as her answer for the first round. In the third round, the question was “The states Montana, Washington (and some other one) entered the Union during this year” to which I got very excited and wrote down 1889 because, well, I’m from Washington and was taught this year in grade school. Someone else beat us to it and they announced that the answer was 1888. WTF?! NO!!! Raven actually had guessed the right date (and it was random) but we didn’t hand in our papers right away so we didn’t win. Drat. Still, I had a lot of fun. The answers to other questions were also wrong, including the answer to the question of who was the First Lady of the United States of America from 1989 to 1993? We put down Barbara Bush and the answer sheet said Betty Bush. They actually went online to check that one. I was surprised by how many American questions were asked. Good thing we could answer them.