I left Nelson and got on the Magic Bus once again. It was a windy rainy day and I was tired so it was a good day for travelling on the bus and sleeping. We stopped twice; once somewhere in the middle of nowhere and again at Cape Foulwind but it was too stormy and I was too tired to enjoy it.
Finally I arrived at Punakaiki Beach Hostel (punakaikibeachhostel.co.nz), my home for the next two and a half weeks. I met Lotz our German boss who welcomed me and showed me to the Seaside House where I met the other wwoofers. Lukas from Switzerland, Andrew from Virgina, USA, Amber from Australia and her travelling companion, Daniel from New Zealand. After settling in and getting to know everyone a little I ended up playing Monopoly with Lukas and three German guests. It wasn’t that much of an exciting first night but I was tired anyway so I went to sleep so I was ready for my first day of work the next day.
We start everyday at 10am or check-out time. Each morning we walked just a few minutes along the beach road to the Beach Hostel office to find out our tasks for the day. The first day I was to work with Andrew making the beds and cleaning the Seaside House. It was simple. We even got to listen to music while cleaning and it was a beautiful sunny day!
After only 3 hours of work Andrew, Lukas and I had lunch together and then planned to hike the Inland Pack Track-Pororari River Track Loop located in the Paparoa National Park. Leaving the hostel we started walking south along hwy 6 towards Punakaiki's famous Pancake Rocks.
Along the highway we could see New Zealand’s only naturally occurring palm tree, the Nikau Palm. These species take 15 years or more before trunk formation takes place. The fronds mature to a length of 2-3m before the palms begin their slow upward growth. Both the young leaf buds and the flower stalks were eaten by the Maori and the early Europeans. I haven’t tried them yet.
It was a great day to see the Pancake Rocks but it was too calm to see any action from the Blowholes.
We continued on down the road to the beginning of the Inland Pack Track.
Canada and New Zealand's west coast rainforests are definitely not the same.
We don’t see tree ferns, or Wheki (in Māori), which grow up to 10 cm (5 in) a year, and can reach a height of 6 m.
Or my favourite plant, the Rata. There are two main types of Rata, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Rata usually begins its life as a epiphyte or a plant perched on a host tree like you can see below. Over many years the vines can grow to surround a host tree. Once the host tree dies of old age it is then a hollow trunked Rata Tree. The Southern Rata grows from a seed in the ground, like most trees, and can grow up to 15 metres high with a trunk 1 metre thick. It has beautiful red flowers and grows from sea level to 760 metres, mostly on the south island of New Zealand.
After about an hour of walking we came to the turn off to the Porarari River Track and could start to see the river through the trees.
There were amazing rock cliffs on the other side as the river ran down through a valley.
It was almost like we were walking along the Amazon River.
The track, which only took us half as much time as the sign said it would, led us right across the street from the Seaside House.
Later I saw my first Punakaiki Beach sunset just a 3 minute walk from my bed.
The next day I was told to work with Lukas cleaning the main Beach House. After that Andrew, Lukas and I went to the Truman Track. It was about a kilometer up hwy 6 the opposite way that we had walked the day before.
These two specimens were on the 10 minute track down to the beach. Sorry I don't remember what kind of tree they are.
Lotz had told us about two secret beaches if you kept heading up the coast, a little ways through the jungle and through a cave. At the first beach we found this waterfall.
Lukas was quite excited about it.
The next day after work Lukas and Andrew hitchhiked to Greymouth for food while I hung out with a new friend. Duncan, a very nice chap from England, was staying another night at the hostel so we got to spend the day sharing our faith and just enjoying the beach and taking a swim in the river. He also had a guitar with him so I had a little lesson. I was learning the chords fast, better than I had back home after taking a few lessons. So I decided that I should buy myself a small guitar to travel with. I had lot of time to practice and that is just what I needed.
Finally Johanna arrived in the late afternoon!
After Lukas and Andrew got back from shopping trip we all went down to the beach to watch the sun go down,
And sit around one of our many campfires.
Johanna and I also went for a moonlit swim.
Duncan headed south the next morning and we went to work. After work it was Johanna's and my time to hitch to Greymouth for supplies. We got there in one ride, spent a few hours shopping, and then made our way with our many heavy bags to hitch home. We got one ride fifteen minutes down the road and waited there.
Then we got another ride with a lady that dropped us off only ten minutes away from Punakaiki. We tried walking to a better pull out spot and ended up waiting a good half hour before we got our last ride back to the Seaside House. Johanna, the boys and I had decided that we'd each take a turn cooking dinner for everyone so we arrived just in time for Spaghetti!
It's not that we didn't have enough for dinner or that it wasn't good. Johanna and I just decided that we wanted nachos so we went to the Punakaiki Tavern (next door) and got them for take away. We took them down to the beach to enjoy!
And Andrew danced around another fire.
And boy did we enjoy those nachos and some New Zealand beer to go with it of course.
Our next adventure was a hike up Fox River which is about a twenty minute drive north up hwy 6. Johanna, Lukas and I got a ride hitchhiking with a guy that worked in the mines in Greymouth. We followed what we thought was the track up the river. I don't remember when we realised we weren't actually on the track but walking straight up the river worked for us.
There were crossings that were easy,
And then there were a few spots where we almost had to swim to cross the river.
Of course, knowing me, I went swimming anyway.
But we finally made it up to a point where we found the track that led to Fox River Cave.
You definitely need to bring a torch or Ficklampa and a friend when you go caving.
Johanna hadn't been on the Pororari River Track-Inland Pack Track Loop and all of us hadn't been to the lagoon, where the Punakaiki River met the sea, yet. So Johanna headed off along the track the opposite way that Lukas, Andrew and I had been and we planned to meet her at the lagoon. We left about an hour later to walk along hwy 6 to the lagoon. As you can see, I gave my "Natalie Portman's Shaved Head" T-shirt to Andrew. After a good few years with everyone asking what it said, I was over the shirt.
Johanna was already there, lying in the sun, on the sand, waiting for us. We went straight into the water to swim.
It was perfect, not too cold, not too much of a current, refreshing, and when I looked through my googles under the water I could see a school of fish swimming by. Johanna and I grabbed our waterproof cameras to capture them.
And I captured her as well.
The boys were already out of the water drying off in the sun.
So we got out to join them and explore the rest of the beach.
This is where the river meets the ocean and the tide comes in.
The rocks that you can see here are part of Razorback Point.
Here is a view of the area from the air, compliments of davidwallphoto.com.
So I took some more pictures,
Of some beach art that people made,
Two tourists doing what tourists do best,
And then I got my picture taken with my Swiss brother <3
The next couple days I won't forget but I don't think that I'll be telling you all the details.
We made a new friend, Rau-lan, when we were hanging out in the main Beach House one Thursday evening.
Well mostly I did, I made the effort. Rau-lan was on an internship from France working and living in Christchurch. He was on the west coast for about a week to do an assignment but he also had some time off over the weekend so he stayed to discover the wonders of Punakaiki Beach Hostel.
It was Friday night and Lukas, Johanna and Andrew had gotten Sundays from tavern while I went to meet Rau-lan.
We all met to watch the sunset and noticed part of a shark lying on the beach.
Saturday afternoon Rau-lan was nice enough to drive Johanna, Lukas and I into Greymouth to buy food since he had to get some as well. First we stopped for a coffee and to do some colouring!
Hmm, I guess we didn't win the contest...
Remember, you're NEVER too old to colour!
This trip into Greymouth was also the day I bought my travelling guitar at the Warehouse! It was cheap, only $80 NZD and all that I needed to get me started. And I had the time to practice!
On the drive back to Punakaiki we stopped for a little exploring at what I've found out to be "Ten Mile Creek". At the time we were supposed to figure out a name for it but I don't believe we ever did. So now we know the real name and we didn't even walk a mile up it. We had actually hoped to come back to explore more, maybe next trip. But anyway, here it is...
That evening we had 'breakfast' for dinner and Rau-lan made crepes for dessert, all in occasion of Andrew's 'last supper' with us. Afterwards when it was dark out Lukas, Rau-lan and I walked to Punakaiki Cave. We sang our National anthems to eat other on the way. The cave entrance is just off the hwy across the road from the hostel. We brought our flashlights and headlamps and ventured deep into the cave until we could see glow worms twinkling like stars on the cave ceiling. We enjoyed the magic for a few minutes and Rau-lan tried to do some night rockclimbing and then we exited the cave through another way. We walked down a short trail through the trees to where we entered the cave and ran into a possum or two hiding in the Nikau palms on the way.
The next day, after work of course, Rau-lan and I hiked the Inland Pack Track-Pororari River Track Loop. We gave each other language lessons, went off the track for almost an hour trying to find a view, Rau-lan went swimming in the river, and then ended up running back in the rain. Once we were in dry clothes we made dinner with Johanna and Lukas and then watched Up!. And that is when we found out that "Adventure is out there!!!"
Unfortunately, the next day was Rau-lan's last night at Punakaiki with us but we finished it off with a fire and walk on the beach.
And I saw an amazing sunset that evening.
The next day was rainy so we spent it inside the main Beach House. Johanna and Lukas played monopoly with some fellow travellers while I was online planning our car rental. We met Amos that day. I noticed his name was from the bible. Amos was a minor prophet in the Old Testiment and the author of the Book of Amos. Before he became a prophet, Amos was a wealthy sheep herder and a large scale sycamore fig farmer. The Amos we met was from the U.S., liked cheese burgers, and was travelling NZ by hitchhiking and sleeping in his tent but he did have a beard.
In the evening Lukas, Johanna and I told each other life stories and ate chocolate in the bunk room. I also played them some guitar :)
It cleared up the next day so we thought we'd try to get to the Ballroom Overhang which you can get to from the Fox River Track. A couple days earlier Claire and Mael, a couple from Brittany, France had arrived to wwoof at the hostel so we asked them if they wanted to join us. They had a van so we all piled in and drove to Fox River. Because of the stormy weather just the day before the river had flooded and it was no longer clear and calm, it was deep and dirty and flowing at a much faster speed. We knew that we probably wouldn't be able to reach the Ballroom Overhang that day but we went as far as we could go anyway. Mael, Johanna and Lukas ventured through the forest farther than Claire and I. We just sat on the river bank and enjoyed the scenery. When they got back to the river we enjoyed a snack together.
Here you can see how dirty the water was after the storm.
That evening we ate tacos. Mmmm. And then we went up to the Pancake Rocks with Amos to watch the sunset.
And thanks to Amos we got a picture of the family.
It was now only a few more days until we would be leaving Punakaiki so we made the most of it! My friend Maggie, from Austria, arrived and joined us and some others for a fire one night.
And then the next night the four of us brought dinner to the beach,
Took pictures in the sunset,
Claire and Mael joined us for some music,
And there was full moon but we couldn't exactly capture that on our cameras.
Johanna and I had one more afternoon in Punakaiki so we decided to spend it together, just the two of us.
We headed off towards the lagoon but of course had to stop for ice cream on our way. We walked across the beach towards the lagoon to relax in the sun.
Once we were settled into a spot we reminisced about what we had done since we had met, since the beginning of the year.
Then we went for a swim. The lagoon had changed its shape and the water was much faster like Fox River but we got across to the rocks on the far side of the lagoon. We crawled in between the huge builders exploring and then headed back to the beach to soak up some more sun.
That is why I love Punakaiki and would go back in a second but of course the experience wouldn't be the same.
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