Paparoa National Park

Our visit to Greymouth had two goals: catch the Tranz Alpine train to ride back to Christchurch, and swing by the Paparoa National Park. We did the latter on our drive after leaving Warren and Debs in Westport.  The Paparoa National Park is on the West coast, and it's an area where the earth and sea come together to do amazing and bizarre things. It's most well known for the Pancake Rocks, but all the areas where the sea is eroding the land are interesting.  As we learned from the signs at the park, there are still some mysteries around how the Pancake Rocks are formed. Scientists know that they are more solid limestone layers interspersed with softer mud-rich layers, but how and why this happens are still unsolved.  

 

 

We didn't go just to see the Panakcake Rocks. The whole coastline area is spectacular.  

 

  There's a short walk called the Truman Track just north of the Pancake Rocks. We decided to check it out and we were so glad we did! In typical Kiwi fashion, it was just marked with a small sign and a little parking area off to the side of the road, but the walk turned out to be amazing. It took us through a rainforest trail. 

 

And then out into an unnamed bay.   

Because the tide was out, we could walk across to an adjoining bay. There were massive rocks and some tide pools.  

 

There was also a waterfall coming down the hillside and spilling out into the beach.   

  It was a spectacular walk and we really felt like we'd gotten lucky stumbling upon it!