Pancakes…but not the edible variety!

The 160 k drive to Murchison, our next stopover took us along the coast north of Greymouth.

We stopped along the way to visit the Punakaiki coastal rocks, they are remarkable pieces of natural sculpture. Looking like enormous stacks of pancakes (hence their name) the Pancake Rocks and blowholes are a unique natural attraction.

There are cafes, an information centre and a craft gallery located across the road from the Pancake Rocks…mum and dad decided to have a look around the gallery while Andrew and I explored the walking track.

The coastal promontory of the Pancake Rocks is looped by an easy walking track – 15 minutes, or as long as you want to take to stare into the surge pool at the point (known as the Devils Cauldron), catch the blowholes in action, or enjoy the views down the Paparoa National Park coastline.

Layers of water sculpted limestone, resembling stacks of pancakes, make up the fantastic rock formations– made even more dramatic by the sea spray. Quite awesome displays of rushing spray can be seen because of the powerful wave action of the Tasman Sea.

When we returned from our walk dad was keen to show 

Andrew the bird he’d been watching…

It’s a Weka, the species is related to the very timid ‘Rail’

 that mum and dad have living in their garden at Bribie Island.

We arrived in Murchison at about 2pm, originally a gold rush town, Murchison was almost completely destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1929!

Murchison now calls itself the ‘whitewater capital’ of the country, because there are rivers everywhere. For anybody into canoeing or kayaking, it’s a dream come true. The rivers vary from Class 2 to 4 whitewater, so they’re not for the faint hearted…I don’t think you’ll be surprise to hear that we’re not going to give it a go this time!

We'd read all about a wonderful restaurant in Murchison called ‘The Cow Shed’ and all four of us were really looking forward to our meal there. We were awfully disappointed to find that it isn’t open tonight and so we dined at another restaurant that was OK but not at all special. The saving grace was that we decided to take away an Afghan & an ANZAC biscuit to have with a coffee back at our motel…mum used to make Afghan biscuits with chocolate icing and a walnut on top…I’ll be looking up the recipe when we get back home…I’d forgotten how delicious they are :-)