Franz Josef to Punakaiki

In the morning we made reservations at the YHA in Punakaiki.  Turns out Good Friday is a big deal in NZ.  Every grocery store, most retail stores and some restaurants were closed for Good Friday all the way up the coast.  We again had gorgeous views of the ocean and coastline (most so today than yesterday) and drove through quite a few tiny towns.  For lunch we stopped in Hokitika, which is apparently known for having lots of Jade in the countryside.

Lunch was Pasta Fungi and cheesy garlic bread at a local cafe.  The pasta had mushrooms and bacon in a cream sauce.  I could have done without the bacon, but it was food and I ate it (well, i avoided the bacon as much as possible). We ordered a triple chocolate muffin to go (guess who's idea that was) and walked up to the beach.

The beach was a really awesome dark sand beach with tons of driftwood.

After leaving Hokitika we entered Greymouth, probably the largest town on the west coast.  We tried looking for a connivence store to get food for dinner but everything was closed.  So off we went to Punakaiki.  Punakaiki is a tiny tiny town based around these limestone rocks called the Pancake rocks.  Something in the way the limestone settled caused it to layer and then as the coastline was eroded away the limestone towers started coming up from the ocean.

It'd be more interesting if there weren't so many people there as well.  We also missed high tide which is when the ocean creates blowholes out of the limestone.  But we got a cone of chocolate coconut ice cream and checked into our hostel.

The Truman beach walk started almost from the back of our hostel and took us to a little beach cove which was really awesome to walk around in.  Dinner was at the only tavern in town which turned out to be hopping.  We each had a NZ beer and split nachos, a fried fish, and 2 tiny veggie spring rolls.  It was the cheapest thing on the menu.

And that's all there is to do in Punakaiki.  We went back to the hostel and chatted with the two girls who were staying in the hostel with us.  They are from University of Vermont but are studying for the semester in Auckland.  It was really nice to chat about the east coast with them and we compared their experiences with ours.  They are on Easter break this past week and this coming week so they are exploring the south island.