Today we travelled to Westport from Reefton along a deep winding gorge called Buller Gorge.

The landscape was so exciting. Blue and white cliffs, deep rivers joining the main river the Black river that twisted and meandered with great amounts of swirling waters. We passed by coal seams exposed on the side of the road. The railway track also followed the river all the way. We saw many birds of prey, wild goats and pukeko and weka birds.

When we got to Westport it was a long town stretching along the railway line, we stopped for coffee.

Along the coast road it was so misty. It was the cold sea air meeting the hot land. Poor visibility and full of atmosphere. We stopped at Cape Foulwind and a seal colony. You couldn’t see the sea and not much of the lighthouse so I took a pic of dad in front of it!

The seal colony was more visible and the high tide and crashing waves made for great photos and viewing.

We were disappointed by the poor visibility but continued on to the Pancake Rocks.

Neither of us realised what we were about to see, they were so amazing. The limestone rock formations and blowholes were fantastic and with the stormy seas it was a scene never to be forgotten. Layers of limestone and mud formed over millions of years and the noise of the waves forced through the bridges and caves was deafening and spectacular. We were so lucky to see it in stormy conditions as the water pounding under and out through blowholes was brilliant.

Hope my pics show this, I did my best! We had never seen rock formations like this ever before.

It was a long way back retracing our steps but we enjoyed the Buller Gorge from the opposite direction

Chilling out now it’s much sunnier and warmer inland going to watch films on NZ tv.

Going inland tomorrow for the day.