From Punakaiki to Franz Josef

Last night, I gave up on trying to get internet to work. We managed to book accommodation for Wanaka and Queenstown. Everything in Franz Josef was full. We will have to wing it, there is always space for a tent. We decided to go for a walk on the beach instead at sunset.  That was the best idea, the beach is wide and wild, the waves are rough and the coast has jagged cliffs and rock formations in the sea.

The sunset was right in front of us, unfortunately clouds hid the nicest part as the sun was merging with the sea. We called it a day after that.

We had a good night overall, especially after the one the day before, everything could only be better.

What strikes me the most about Punakaiki are the two huge monolith that guard the mouth of the Porori river, they stand right behind our camp site. They seem like they have some haze, but it’s actually the surf of the sea that gives the coast like a misty air. It’s a very interesting sight to see, entirely different from the other coastlines of New-Zealand that we have seen so far.

We started by seeing the pancake rocks and blowholes, which are the famous spots in Punakaiki. The walkway goes above the cliffs and the sea below is violent. The rock formations are unique and the stacks of limestones are properly battered by the waves and the wind.

We didn’t get the largest blow possible in the blowhole. Apparently the sea was too gentle this day ( see the reel on FB or IG – I filmed it, it didn’t seem gentle to me at all ! ). 
This was short and sweet. We drove back towards the camp, about 500m away is a cave you can walk into. It’s not very deep and with our torchlight, probably took us 15min to explore. Nothing major to note, a nice little side stop. Since we had some time, we decided to do the Porori river trail, which is 2h return and is said to be one of the nicest.
While the river itself has that crystal clear water quality and is very pretty, the path itself was quite boring. It was entirely shaded and we only saw the river a few times, the vegetation was quite thick. It would have been a great Sunday walk, but certainly not a must do in this area.

We had about 2h40 of drive to reach Franz Josef and I had planned to stop at a micro-brewery in Greymouth on route, which we did. It was a great stop, we ordered a 6 variety tasting platters and some lunch. That first cool beer was heaven, especially in the heat of the morning.

Time to resupply some fresh vegetables and start the long part of the drive. It was not the nicest road, mostly flat and very few viewpoints. I was expecting to go up – but actually you really stay in the valley. I hope the Haast pass will offer more views in a few days.

On the way to Franz Josef, we checked the weather, having learned from Kaikoura, that we needed to be more careful. Tomorrow is due for a whole day of rain, and the more worrying was that the night after tomorrow, it is forecasted to be -1 degree Celsius ! We are not camping-wise equipped for negative temperatures. I was starting to stress – all research returned fully booked accommodations. I was hoping to at least, not sleep in our tent the day after tomorrow.

As we arrived towards Franz Josef, all roadside motels were showing “No vacancy” signs. We pull up at the TOP 10 campsite, and we were lucky. We will be camping tonight, but we managed to get the last cabin for tomorrow. Top 10 campsite usually have great facilities, so if all our plans fail tomorrow, at least we will have a comfortable place to wait the rain out. 
Once accommodation was sorted for the next two days, we drove to check out the town and also see if the DOC was still open to see what our options were for tomorrow. The glacier valley might be closed or the walk we intend to do not available when raining. The doc closed 10min prior to our arrival, so we will have to come back in the morning.
We then drove to the carpark of the glacier to see if we could already have a small view and also check the information pannels there. I had planned to walk Robert’s point, which is 600m elevation and about 5h20min hike. A good day hike, but with the rain …. I don’t think that we will be able to do it.

Plan B is to simply rest tomorrow -my ankle is still a little tender from Abel Tasman and my blisters need time to heal. We still have a lot of shorter walk that we can do ( or not ) and Tuesday has sunshine again, so we can do that before our long drive to Wanaka.