Punakaika, the caves and Carters Beach

March 31, 2010


Well what a great day we’ve had, one full of surprises and adventure. We started out in the wet and grey (it is a rainforest dad) and packed our gear into the camper van, we’re getting pretty good at the routine by now. Through the Southern Alps, north bound until we hit the coast at Hokitika and followed it along to Greymouth. In this area the mountains have changed completely to flat lying bedded sediments; limestone, sandstone and conglomerate – perfect environment for a sculpted coastline, flowerpot islands and caves. We continued north to Punakaiki in Paparoa national park – the Pancake Rocks. There is a beautiful little walk through indigenous bush to the coastal cliffs which are full of eroded finely bedded limestone and mudstone. The rain and pounding surf have carved the cliffs into towers, caves and blowholes. Because the finely bedded grey limestone is flat lying the eroded shapes look like stacks of pancakes thus Pancake Rock. We had lunch here and fed the Ketas – a flightless bird that looks like a cross between a chicken and a Kiwi and the locals consider it the equivalent to our racoons as they are bold and steal food. We then explored the Punakaiki caverns. Now by caving standards these are not grand, but they are unrestricted access to the public and with a flashlight you can venture quite far into them. They were (are) carved by underground streams originating in the mountains above making their way to the sea so there is some sheet flow, stalagmites and stalactites and interesting rock formations. We got a few pictures and quite dirty in there. The weather had turned in our favour with a gentle breeze, comfortable temperatures and sun so we decided to push on to Westport an area known for literally kilometers of fine grey sand beach.

We made out campsite at Carters Beach just outside Greymouth. This is an important port city and services the local coal mining and cement operations. But where we are, it is simply miles and miles of undeveloped beach – pristine fine grey sand with rolling surf. Carters Beach ends at an area called Cape Foulwind on Tauranga Bay so named because Captain Cook faced nothing but high seas and foul winds when he circumnavigated the island. Turanga Bay is the home and mating spot for New Zealand Fur Seals so we had to check it out. The bay is again a beautiful grey sandy beach with rocky promontories on both ends. At low tide (which it was) the beach extends out for hundreds of meters and you can walk across the sand spits to the coastal islands. The rocks continue out into the sea and this is where the seal colonies are. With some effort you could actually circumnavigate the headland along the sea and get at the seals, however people have been badly bitten in the past and one person killed. We watched the seals bask in the sun and play in the tide pools. There were only a dozen or so as this is their moult season, most of them were out at sea filling their bellies. This seal is now protected as it was almost hunted to extinction by Europeans, now no fur sealing takes place in New Zealand. These seals were a huge food source for the coastal Maori and when the Europeans started hunting them they were forced to move out or joined the coal miners in their dangerous profession.

While here we noticed some locals heading across the beach with buckets so went out to see what was up. They were collecting New Zealand green lipped mussels while the tide was out – well not being one to miss an opportunity Duncan and I took off our shoes and pants and waded out to the mussel encrusted rocks with the van’s bucket. We get these mussels in Toronto, they are the large ones with the green fringed shell that you buy frozen – well let me tell you, we are getting the babies. The mussels we harvested were larger than my fist and 50 or 60 of them filled our bucket! We quickly headed back to camp to steam them open - they were so big we could only do 9 or 10 at a time. With the whole family working together we steamed, shucked, cleaned and cooked in white wine a feast of mussels. By now it was late and the stars were out as was the full moon. We ended a brilliant day with a stroll on the beach in moonlight.



The wildlife of New Zealand OR Where have all the Fauna gone?

Now you may have noticed that I haven’t spoken much about New Zealand’s native wildlife – that’s because there isn’t any! While much of the island is lush and green, most of what was here originally has been killed off. The Maori when they came (from Hawaii it is now believed) hunted the giant Moa to extinction, introduced the rat which they liked to eat which crowded out or ate many other native species and were in the habit of burning great tracks of bush to make travel easier and flush out game. Not exactly your first conservationists. The Europeans when they arrived hunted, fished mined and logged as expected but also cleared huge areas of bush and introduced the Marino sheep for wool production. They also introduced possums for their fur to mix with the wool and rabbits for food which have both spread like the plague eating much of the native plant life. All of this crowded out native species until they now only exist in small protected pockets around the country. Thus on any one day while we may see thousands of cows and sheep, pass hundreds of dead possums and rabbits being feasted on by raptors and a few song birds there is little other wildlife to see. New Zealand has no large land mammals, no wild dogs, wolves or foxes, no snakes, very few reptiles and only a few bird species beyond shore birds. There is a huge and highly controversial project across New Zealand to poison off the rabbits and possums using green dyed carrots laced with 1080 (sodium flouroacetate I think). Everywhere we drive in the country there are signs against this practice, but we have seen crews out spraying and baiting.

Tomorrow it is on to Golden Bay on the northern tip of the South Island to Abel Tasman National Park, an area known for its treks and beautiful golden beaches.