From Hokitika to Carters Beach

To be honest, this was actually a trip I had planned for about 3 days, and I ended up doing it all in one. But I have to say, the two cities, well, I went through them quickly, I'd rather be back in nature. Let's start from the beginning; I first drove to Hokitika in the morning, where I had already stayed nearby. It was raining heavily again, but I still went to the beach to see the sign. The only mission here was: jade. Hokitika is known as the jade capital. I actually wanted to do something myself, but it turned out that it wasn't easy to book, and when I did, it was expensive. So I decided to just look around and found a nice spiral that I wanted, and a souvenir :) I was quite satisfied, wandered through the alleys a bit, and then drove to Greymouth. I actually wanted to take a walk here, but it was still raining heavily, so no. Next, I headed to the pancake rocks, and I must say the way there was also very winding, not a straight path at all, always along the sea, I could have stopped every 2 meters (and I did at times) to admire the view. It was incredible, everywhere there was black sandy beach, next to it rainforests, huge waves, and massive rocks in the water. At the pancake rocks, I parked and was first greeted by two very curious Weka. The path to the rocks was also very beautiful, a circular walk of about 20 minutes. It was so cool to see that and the sea on the side, which seemed to go on indefinitely; I have never seen such long beaches as here. The rocks look like a bunch of pancakes stacked up, the waves flow through them, and in the end, there was an amazing view. I then drove near Cape Foulwind to the seal colony. It was a short walk in the mountains along the sea. I didn't really expect to see any there, but the walk alone was beautiful. Once I arrived, it took a little while to spot them because they really look like the rocks they lie on. Same color, and if they don't move, they are really well camouflaged. But then there was a bit of movement, and my god, they were adorable. There were quite a few of them, including babies. It's so funny, they lie on their backs, for example, and stretch out their flippers (the feet), so that was really great, I could have watched them for hours. But then I moved on to Cape Foulwind and the lighthouse, which was also a small walk that came with a breathtaking view of the surrounding cliffs.

Then I went to Carters Beach, where I found a spot with benches, so I could cook and later take a beach walk and collect shells. I filled up my water briefly and drove to the sleeping spot. We'll see if I take a lazy day tomorrow or if I already head to Karamea, but that might require a bit more planning.