Pupu Springs, Takaka

On my road trip I made it over the massively windy Takaka Hill to see the Pupu Springs - some of the clearest water in the world - my friend had highly recommended it to me. Apparently you used to be able to go swimming in it, but due to fear of didymo or some other such water weed nobody is allowed to touch the water anymore - although two men that were there as the same time as me told me the water was very cold - I may have given them a sideways glance & asked if they had touched it - they wouldn't answer me, which is fair enough. It was the most AMAZING colour blue I have ever seen anywhere! Wow.

When I came out to leave I was really gutted to see that sometime during my drive from Hamner Springs that morning (I left at 5am) I had managed to hit a bird which was dead in the front grill, I had to find a stick to knock it out, I felt so bad (especially as I had no recollection of hitting anything that morning, though I was driving for about 2hrs through fog).

The Pinnacles Walk, Kaueranga Valley

When I was a kid our family used to camp in Kaueranga Valley (that was before a tourist couple got killed there) so it caused me some nostalgia to drive over the bridge that we used to go over (and the awesome waterhole right next to it). The walk up to the Hut was good but steep. I stopped there for lunch - it was an awesome sunny day (April 2014) and I was contemplating going all the way up to the top but the walk had tired me out quite a bit & I wished I'd worn my tramping boots instead of sneakers coz I could feel every stone on the track that I walked over. So I headed back down without going all the way to the top. The hut was full which was a pity coz it would've been nice to camp up there and drop all my gear and actually do the walk up to the top with just a water bottle and jacket - its a really flash hut. I remember staying there once with my youth group when I was a teenager.

So this is my family when I was a kid at the waterhole

And this is how it looked the last time I went

And these are a few of the pics I took on the way up - such a beautiful sunny day!

Road Trip March 2014 - Punakaiki Rocks

I had several days to spend sightseeing before I started the Heaphy Track, so I hired a car and went tiki touring - and saw some amazing things! I had a really good time, even though I was pretty much by myself except for the nice little asian tourist I picked up in Greymouth on my way to Punakaiki rocks. I never think its a good idea for girl tourists to hitch hike alone, which is the main reason I picked her up, also I thought it might be nice to have some company for a change. So here are some of the photos I got at Punakaiki rocks:

Apparently its known that they were created by layers being put down but its unknown exactly how all the formations came to be, which I think its curious that scientists haven't figured it out yet. I'm sure it can't be the only place in the world with formations like this.