We left Charleston and headed south along the coast to Punakaki to see the Pancake Rocks and blowholes. After the overnight storm, it continued to rain and the wind continued to blow.
The Pancake Rocks are layers of compressed sediment in alternating layers of harder and softer materials. Interestingly, they are evenly layered, layer upon layer.
We thought we might find the same rock that Candy and Hany used to take selfies, but theirs was down on the beach and the weather and tide suggested that we didn't want to trek down to the beach. We estimated that the breakers crashing onto the shore started out as 15-20 foot waves.
This rock looked like was perfectly sculpted as an easy chair. In a moment, Bev will come and sit for a while.
Waves rolling in from across the Indian Ocean south of Australia to crash on the western coast of New Zealand.
We had enough of the wind and rain so we started our journey from the west coast to the east coast. Forested winding roads which we were becoming accustomed to driving. There were places that reminded us of northern Michigan, others that were wide open farm land like Iowa, but nearly always green.
Then we would come upon some grand valley with a large river coming down with railways and bridges.
Eventually, we got to Arthur's Pass, the divide between west and east. Up the north side of the pass was this double falls cascading down from mountains further up.
On the east side of the pass were these Alps-like snow covered peaks. Impressing driving past these towering majestic peaks.