8/8/03
PUNAKAIKI, WEST COAST
as we drove into Punakaiki, we pulled over at the entrance to the
Truman Walk,
a nice short 15 minute walk down to a scenic shoreline.
we watched the sunset, peacefully, beautifully, in totally contrast
to the painful agony we were experiencing from the biting sandflies.
sula and sam tried to beat the high tide to see a cool tucked away
waterfall -
sula made it but sam got more than a wee bit wet.
after a night of playing a nerve-wracking game of jenga,
mick, suzi, and paul braved the scorching waters of the hot tub,
where we intermittently kept running down and jumping into the ocean
to refresh ourselves
and then headed back up to the hot tub at the hostel
(this was made easy by the fact that the hostel was on the beach).
there was a rainbow around the moon that night
(explain that one!)
the Pancake Rocks are really cool dolomite (limestone) rocks,
which were layered on top of each other to form sculpture-like stacks.
They surround a number of blowholes,
which if you've never experienced them, are some of the coolest
things on the planet.
A powerful jet of water is forced with intense pressure through
a hole in the rocks,
sometimes up to 60 feet high!
the wave hitting the rock hole sounds like the great muffled boom
of a drum,
and the sound of the water rushing out the top sounds like a loud
spray of an aerosol can.
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S.P.A.M.s being hams
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Team S.P.A.M on the beach
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mick at the pancake rocks
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Suzi does a little cave exploring of her own
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beautiful coastline
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mick and paul at the bottom of the Truman Walk
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the blow hole going off
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the Pancake Rocks
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