November 20, 2022

November 20, 2022

It rained again all night. We left Riwaka, New Zealand heading southwest up the Motueka River valley. It is a very winding narrow rural road. It is much like Ireland. The rental car we have is larger than we wanted and is brand new with all the latest proximity and safety sensors. The car beeps incessantly when parking, and on the road if I am not exactly in the center of the lane. That is impossible with the unending Kiwi road curves.

Eventually we make it over the Hope Saddle and then follow the Buller River to the west coast. This river valley abutting Kahurangi National Park is even steeper and more scenic. After a couple hours we reach the sea, hoping to have a straighter road by the coastal plains. Except there aren’t any. Just high sea cliffs, a rugged coastline, and more torturous narrow roads. On the plus side, the rain has stopped, the weather is clearing up, and the scenery gorgeous. Very surprising since the West Coast (or Wet Coast) gets rain measured not in inches, but feet.

Not far down the coast we enter Paparoa National Park. Our first stop is at the Truman Track for a short hike through a thick grove of New Zealand Flax to see the rock formations at the coast. Our next stop is at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. This is a loop hike to see the heavily eroded limestone cliffs that line the seashore. The sedimentary layers are very distinct and very cool. There are a large number of Taras, a kind of white Tern, nesting atop the rocks.

Afterwards we backtrack a mile to a tavern we passed. There we have salad and a Kumara Soup. Kumara is Polynesian Sweet Potato and is one of the main food plants that these sea peoples brought with them when populating new islands. This tuber originated in South America suggesting Polynesians incredibly had prehistoric contact with Andes Mountain cultures.

Refreshed, we drove across the highway and hiked the Pororari River Track. This is the first section of the 30-mile Paparoa Track, another of the Great Walks. This hike follows the Pororari River inland. The river runs inside sheer cliffs covered in palms, ferns and other rainforest trees and vines. It is like walking along a river in the Amazon jungle. Aimee likes hiking here because she doesn’t have to worry about dangerous animals. New Zealand, like Hawaii and the Galapagos, are new islands devoid of most mammals and reptiles. Only birds could fly here.

Back on the coast road we continued south for another forty minutes, passing great coastal scenery, stopping for the night in Greymouth at the mouth of the Grey River. After checking into our motel, we had dinner across the street at another pub.