This morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day and the news that Samoa had been hit by an earthquake and a Tsunami was heading for the East Coast of New Zealand. Thank goodness we were on the Central West Coast.
We left Murchison and headed for Greymouth. Just outside Murchison we stopped at the Buller River Gorge Adventure Centre and went for a walk across the Swing Bridge and through the rainforest. I must say the Swing Bridge was a little scary if you looked down, but if you kept looking forward it was fine. We saw the jet boat on the river, but at $75 per person we were not enthused.
Wandering through the forest we came across an old excavator, tractor, truck and pump. I don’t know why but they had just been dumped in the forest. Noeline, Jordan and Andrew were too lazy to walk back, so they took the flying fox. Gerard and I took the photos and walked back across the Swing Bridge.
We then travelled on to Westport for lunch and a walk around the shops. We managed to bag some bargains at the shops, Postie Fashions are here everywhere and with the change of seasons we cashed in a little bit. We also answered frantic calls from Mum and Dad who thought we were going to get washed away in the Tsunami. Even if one did hit it would only be about 1.5 metre waves.
We left Westport and travelled out to the Seal Colony and saw more seals sunning themselves on the rocks and beautiful views of the rugged coastline. It was a beautiful 15-minute walk around the rugged bluff. Further down the road we stopped at Punakaiki, which is just a tourist stop where you can do a 20-minute walk along the coast looking at the Pancake rocks (kind of like the twelve apostles) and the blowhole. We checked out the souvenirs and had a drink.
From Punakaiki we continued our travels to Greymouth where we have booked into our Motel. Once again we have a lovely two-bedroom apartment and I have brownie points. We are off to do the brewery tour and a bar-b-que tea tonight, so I will tell you all about it in my next posting.
