Punakaiki and Greymouth

We woke from our beach campsite in the morning to have tea and breakfast over a fire on the beach on an overcast day. After a sluggish start, we headed back up the road to see The Pancake Rocks: a tourist attraction located on the coast of the Paparoa Naitonal Park where limestone rocks have been shaped by the ocean to look like pancakes stacked on top of one another. The most alluring part is the blowholes that occur at high tide and while we'd hoped to catch the blowholes in action, we weren't so lucky. The Pancake Rocks were still cool and I stalked a guy wearing a Boston Red Sox cap only to discover he was actually from Oklahoma. We met a couple Americans traveling on tour buses in the area and it was one of our first real experiences being in a locaition populated entirely by the tour buses passing through and people like us.

We grabbed some drinks and ice cream at the little cafe across the street and discovered that just down the road was the Paparoa Caverns. The sun came out and we scurried along in high sprits to climb around this amazing cave. We sang songs ("I Would Walk 500 Miles") and Mike took photos as we walked and crawled through sand stone and little waterfalls. We even saw a few glow worms hiding out in the back of the cavern. It was awesome.

We jumped back on the road and headed down to Greymouth: possibly the largest town on the West Coast. The boys discovered that a brewery tour was just going to start at Monteith's Brewery, so I dropped them off and went to search for internet. I was late to pick them up due to some charging electronics and boys were no where in sight when I hopped out of the car in front of the Brewery. Suddenly, I heard someone running very loudly and very fast in flip flops and realized Tim was screaming my name at the top of his lungs and sprinting full speed down a hill towards me. As he ran into me, he lifted me into the air screaming "We thought we'd lost you!"

They drank a LOT of beer on that brewery tour.

With groceries and more beer supplies in our vehicle, I drove my rowdy and joyous men to our next campsite where we had one of the best meals of our trip: nachos over a campfire. We made so much food that for the first time we legit could not finish everything. The campsite itself was awesome -- it had a stove built over the fire pit and was set off away from the other campsites -- and ... wait for it... FLUSHING TOILETS. Being set off from other sites was definitely good, as we watched Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King while we ate copious amounts of nachos around our campfire and finished the film while all laying on top of each other in our tiny tent. Epic epic night.

Buller Gorge and Westport

From Top To Bottom:
(1) Westport: Thank you for the library bathroom and free wifi,
(2) Buller Gorge and The Iron Bridge,
(3) I like taking photos of Mike taking photos,
(4) Breakfast at Buller Gorge,
(5) Our gnats campsite.

Abel Tasman National Park

From Top to Bottom: (1) The prairie grass looking out to the ocean,
(2) 5pm is great for photos but not necessarily for swimming,
(3) The trees were incredible,
(4) "On The Coast Of Somewhere Beautiful NZ 2011",
(5) The coast of somewhere beautiful,
(6) Naptime with sand flies,
(7) Anapia beach,
(8) To the beach!,
(9) The path through the forest,
(10) These awesome fern palm trees,
(11) Mike admiring the trees

The Road to Abel Tasman

From Top to Bottom: (1) Tim has this habit of sweeping me off my feet - literally,
(2) Up the Mountain to Abel Tasman!,
(3) The beach was literally shimmering gold,
(4) Golden Bay,
(5) The beach we stopped to have lunch on,
(6) From the top of one of the mountains down into the valley,
(7) Mmm Mike don't jump!,
(8) Mike testing the water,
(9) Tim enjoying the sunshine,
(10) We had to stop on our way to Abel Tasmen cause it was so beautiful.

The Palace Backpackers

From Top to Bottom: (1) Dan asleep in our room,
(2) The boys leaving the Palace our last morning,
(3) The porch on the side of our room,
(4) Our balcony,
(5) The walkway up to our balcony from the driveway.

Camping on the Beach

On our drive down the coast through Paparoa National Park we discovered that the DOC campsite (Department of Conservation) we were headed for actually was much further away and we wouldn't make it there that night. So we thought we would look for camping signs or perhaps a free place to stay on the side of the road.

We drove past a huge pasteur that led out to the beach and the boys spotted three campervans sitting at the end of a long road, literally parked right on the beach. So we headed down the road to see if people were just surfing or if they were going to be camping on the beach for the night and if we could find a spot for our tent and car.

"Free camping" or "Guerilla Camping" is something that we're pretty big fans of but it happens to be a hot topic issue here in New Zealand on the South Island. Almost everyone on the South Island seems to be a pair or trio of tourists in a campervan with no toilet driving the islands as we are. But they camp on beaches or on pasteurs and they just shit on the land and peace out. To put it plainly. So obviously New Zealanders are getting upset. We've done an excellent job finding and using public toilets and making sure never to litter and to leave our camping spots as we've found them but I can certainly say not everyone follows those rules of conduct.

We discovered three Germans, two Parisians, and a family of Kiwis (from Auckland) all camping out on the beach for the night in their campervans. The kiwis had a huge firepit going with benches made from beach wood (as well as a palm branch bed) and they invited us to cook and chat with them while the sun set over the ocean. It was amazing. Tim drove off in search of water and actually ended up driving across several fields to find this house and ask them for water and it turned out to be the people whose land we were free camping on! They gave Tim water and sent him on his way - but asked him to drive on the driveway.

He returned to the beach just in time for the most gorgeous sunset of the trip and for a dinner of rice, beans, zucchini, onions, garlic, potato, carrots, and broccoli with teriyaki sauce and a big salad for dessert. Yeah we camp in style. We stayed up late eating and talking with everyone and when the family went to sleep, the boys broke out the cigars and we chatted with the Germans about working in New Zealand while enjoying the warmth of our huge fire.

Westport and The West Coast

We arrived around midnight at a campsite located at an old Railway station stop on the side of the highway. It was packed with campervans and tents but we plopped down on a patch of grass under a full moon. When we woke in the morning we discovered literally hundreds of gnats swarming around us and Adi: it was disgusting and we've never moved out of a campsite so quickly!! We drove away with the windows down to flush out the gnats and stopped about an hour later for breakfast beside the Iron Bridge overlooking the Buller Gorge. I was picking wild blackberries above a waterfall when I somehow slipped and turned my ankle: I was litterally standing one second and then on my hands and knees the next. Although initially I was terrified I'd sprained it, it seemed alright so we jumped back in the car and pushed onwards to Westport, a larger South Island town on the coast.

It should be noted that the South Island towns are SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than North Island ones. There are only 800,000 people living on the whole of the South Island and only 4 million people populating New Zealand all together. So a "large" town on the South Island consists of a few cross streets along a main road with one gas station, library, and grocery chain.

We plunked down in the Westport library to use their free internet and skype with our respective mothers. We ended up needing a good five hours to sit and catch up on our lives and in that time my ankle swelled up and I hobbled down to Subway to steal a bag of ice. Mike and I managed to get yelled at twice in that library (My mom: "Who the hell was that dick?!" Love you mommy) before pushing out of town with new groceries.

As we drove, our exhausted spirits were suddenly lifted as we turned a corner to be greeted with The West Coast and these beautiful waves crashing against the shore. We were driving along the coast in Paparoa National Park and we were in paradise. It was very similar to driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in California but we were in New Zealand and that makes absolutely everything better.