February March

Wed Feb 18 2009: West Coast Adventures

We're out of Nelson at 9AM, weather looks nice but it's still a bit chilly in the morning. Part of the route this morning is the same as yesterday as it leads us towards the west coast of the island. We see new roads about an hour into our ride. I'm starting to realize that it's redundant to say all of the roads are twisty here. Outside of the cities, I don't think there is a straight stretch of road for more than 500m. It just puts the roads we have back at home to shame. I'm experiencing a pretty blissful morning ride, and then I get a rock to the neck at 100 km/h. Felt like a bee sting, but 100X worse. I know it's a rock and not a bee or insect because there's no wings or carcass. Yummy! I'll be nursing that welt for the entire day.


Pacific Coast Highway (half a world away)

Buller Gorge Road runs through Paparoa National Park and the Buller river runs to the right of the road about a hundred feet below the highway. There are some canoers or kayakers on the river, not too sure which because I'm too focused on the road. I like NZ roads because there's a predictable rhythm to the turns and the recommended speeds are consistent, not like at home where some 30 km/h turns can be taken at 120 km/h and others merely 60 km/h!


Watching the ocean after lunchtime at Cape Foulmoth

We turn into Cape Foulwing for lunch. We've now reached the west coast of the island and the vegetation has turned distinctly tropical, as if we had crossed a border or some line on the map. Gone are the Alpine pines and firs, immediately replaced with lush ferns and broad-leafed trees. The sun has gotten hotter even though the air is quite cool. From talking to folks, we've found out why we're getting sunburnt so easily. Turns out there's a hole in the ozone layer above Australia and NZ! So the hole in the Arctic is slowly closing up, but the one down here is growing. There's speculation as to why this is happening, but the one I like is that the greenhouse gases down here are coming from all the livestock and not vehicles! We're told 10-15 minutes in the sun will start to turn your skin red.


The beach at Cape Foulwing


Yellow on green

Lunch is at The Bay House, a great restaurant overlooking the beaches of the Cape Foulwing. From our seats we watched surfers paddle out and surf into the bay. Neda took a walk around and took some pictures of Kiwis! The national bird of New Zealand! At least we thought they were Kiwis, and then a guy at another table told us the birds were actually Western Wekas. What a disappointment! It turns out Kiwis are 1) an endangered species and quite rare 2) are nocturnal and are rarely seen during the daytime and 3) not really found in this part of the island. The Weka, about the size of a chicken, is much larger than a Kiwi, which is about the size of a chick and has a longer, curved beak. Wekas are not uncommon at all, and we're told are mostly found smushed on the roads of New Zealand... Our new mission now on this trip is to find a Kiwi!


The Western Weka, a Kiwi imposter.


More fake Kiwis. This time, stuffed toys at the gift store.

After a walk on the beach, we got back on the bikes and headed south along the highway which hugs the western shoreline. It all has a very California Pacific Coast Highway feel to it, the two-lane winding road, the beaches and odd rock formations rising out of the blue ocean. We've been told to stop in Punakaiki, where there is a huge blowhole spewing seawater from a hole in a shelf of rock. Best time to view this is during high tide when the water underneath rises high enough and also when the ocean is very turbulent. The weather was calm today, which made for great motorcycle riding, but alas, no blowhole activity. Another nice feature of the area were the Pancake Rocks. Striated limestone that rise out of the ocean, they look like pancakes stacked one on top of another.


A young fern leaf unrolling. This seems to be a national symbol for NZ.


Walking around Punakaiki. The blowhole is just behind Neda.


Pancake Rocks


Walking around Punakaiki

We arrive fairly late in Greymouth due to all the hiking around at the sites along the way.


Bikes at our B&B


Infinity Eden is a more modern B&B than what we have stayed in so far


Interesting art & shadow at Infinity Eden


A smooch at sunset

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