PAPAROA NATIONAL PARK (19/08/09)
After a lot of driving down the west coast the highway took us through Paparoa National Park, a primarily coastal park known for the unusual rock formations that erosion by rain, wind and sea have created.
The large waves crashing in off the Pacific made it easy to understand how the power of the sea could have such a significant impact on the shape of the rock.
The rock strewn and violent coastline is bleak but also very beautiful.
Despite the crashing waves and jagged rocks below up above the forest continued to grow in the sunshine.
Pancake Rocks, named for their resembance to a stack of pancakes- presumably with way too much flour in the mix.
Sometimes as the relentless sea gradually carves out caves under the cliffs part of the roof will fall in. If the hole is the right size and in a good position it will funnel the incoming water increasing the pressure and creating a blow hole. As the jet of water shoots out it creates a cloud of vapour which can have amazing results on a sunny day.
The bizarre 'pancake' formations stretch right out to sea over a fairly large area.
The spectacular west coast.
Along the trail there were several wooden barriers safeguarding people from falling off the sheer cliff immediatly on the other side. It is a sad truth that it is necessary to have signs on all these barriers telling people not to climb over since there is a 200ft drop onto rocks on the other side. Which would hurt. A lot.
Bed for the night was at Fox Glacier town in readiness for a glacier climb the next day. The pink sunset coloured the white mountains and gave us a vague hope that maybe we might be lucky with the weather after all despite the bad forecast.
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