Pancake Rocks and Hokitika

This morning the sunrise was beautiful and pink!! Our first stop was the Punaiki Pancake Rocks and blowholes. The limestone rocks are 30 million years old and they literally look like stacks of pancakes! It was a nice day today but when it's stormy, heavy ocean swells crash into the caverns under the rocks and huge water spouts blast up through the blowholes.

Afterward we visited Hokitika, translated to "the place of return." It is a very nice town on the west coast where we purchased necklaces made out of New Zealand's famous greenstone. Greenstone, also known as ponamu, is nephrite jade that comes from the South Island. It has much significance in Maori culture.

After a nice afternoon exploring the town and beach, we drove two hours to Franz Joseph. The drive from Westport to Franz Josef along the coast is one of the top ten drives in the world! It was incredible. I couldn't take my eyes off of the beautiful countryside, beaches, and snow capped mountains. It hardly looked real!