Greymouth to Franz Josef

From Abel Tasman, we headed inland towards the west coast. We stayed in Punakaiki, the home of the famous pancake rocks. The west coast felt completely different to the tropical coast around Abel Tasman, wild rugged coastline with long grey beaches and huge ocean swells, beautiful in a more remote way. We walked across to the pancake rocks at sunset, layered rock formations where the sea hits the coast with incredibly strength, creating spray bursting through blow holes. On day fourteen we hiked along the Porarari river, through native bush and limestone gullies, stopping alongside a swing bridge to cool our feet in the water. We then set off in our camper van along the winding west coast road, with cliffs on one side and the rugged sea on the other. We stopped at Lake Mahinapua for the night and were rewarded with our first view of the Southern Alps and Mount Cook reflected in the lake waters.