Canucks → Kiwis: No Syrup on these Pancake Rocks!

The coastal drive between Greymouth and Westport is rated very highly in Lonely Planet, and it did not disappoint. There are beautiful views of the wild west coast ocean the whole way, and cool formations where the water has carved out the rock. It helped that we had a perfect sunny day for the drive too.

We thought since we had lots of time though, we'd stop anywhere it looked nice for pictures. The one hour drive took like 3 hours due to picture stops! It was so pretty the whole way! The definite highlight of the drive was the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. Limestone formed in hard and soft layers due to hard and soft marine deposits that occurred millions of years ago, and then eventually these layers were pushed up by tectonic forces (something basically every sign in the little park/walk told you over and over again) and eroded away to make some very picturesque little rock towers and blowholes when tide is high.

Tide was highest just after sunset so our plan was to rush back and get some sweet sunset pictures, and though we got a few, our timing was a bit off and we were more rushed than we'd've liked. Oh well, it was pretty and fun anyways! And we saw our first Weka in the wild! Not quite as exciting as a Kiwi or Moa, but it'll do. :)

The day was filled with scenes such as these. Waves rolling in like clockwork, Sun, Sky!

Dexter being an absolute goofball! Love this pic.

Waves, waves, rocks.

Dexter looking quite stoic as I take some pictures of the scenery and Binney gets a rest from the road.

Binney gets the MySpace angle treatment! What a great little van he's been.

Dexter gets some fun too! Pancake rocks in the back and Dexter fetching in the river. It was pretty flowing though, so he had to be smart and run upstream if he wanted to cross to where we were standing.