Slow day, sea and sunset

Today was a rest day from driving –I went a few kms north to Punakaiki and just beyond, driving one of the best coast roads in the world.

The 3 blow holes were relatively calm. Patience was needed (that’s shadowy me waiting) to see the spray that bursts forth when the crashing waves hit the pillars of limestone pancakes that formed 24 million years ago.

Unsurprisingly I encountered species tourist at the Rocks; not so at Truman Track, a short walk through the bush to the sea. Informative labels indicate the native hardwoods and plants –it felt quite tropical with rimu, ferns and a damp undergrowth on what was by now another warm day.

The forest soon gave way to salt tolerant plants such as flax and then there was more sea to enjoy. I had a picnic lunch overlooking the churning, bubbling sea with waves that rose, curled, lipped white and then spewed over into a mass not unlike beaten egg white just before its ready for the sugar. So watchable and so difficult to convey with a still photo but here’s one or two of the hundreds I took. I am now deleting from the huge memory stick having backed up my pics more then once. Later walking along a beach I tried the movie facility but I can’t seem to transfer that file to the blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

With each wave mountains of froth and foam roll out, its made of natural detergent like substance that gets beaten up by the power of  the waves and is loaded with fine silt. It makes for an amazing sight on beaches which are otherwise pebbles and driftwood of all shapes and sizes.

…to be continued