April 17 - Punakaiki

 We are on the West coast also know as the WET coast!!!!  We departed this morning in the sunshine…not particularly warm…but sunny.  The ride today was generally south west heading to the west coast.  Some farm land at the beginning which turned into hilly, twisty treed area either a gorge, and river and rocky outcrops.  Gorgeous!  Keeping our heads on a swivel to try and catch the views while staying on the road and aware of traffic.  About an hour into our 4 1/2 hr ride it started to rain…just a bit more than a drizzle….then stopped.  On and off raining for then next hour.  The last hour was heavy rain….just as we were getting to the west coast and the Tasman Sea.  The coast is amazing….tall black rocks with the sea waves crashing against the rocks. No pictures as we were soaked and it was raining hard.  This is an amazing place that we hope to return to someday to see the blowholes, the coastline and the pancake rocks.  

We are in a motel that has a tavern attached to it.  Good food to warm us up this afternoon and access to laundry, so we dried our clothes.  

This is where we are tonight, in Punakaiki.  Our original plan was to head south a few hundred km then across to Christchurch to return the bikes on Tuesday, then rent a car for the remainder of our time here.  With the rain we have decided to return the bikes a few days early.  So our plan for tomorrow is to get up early and make tracks towards Christchurch.  It’s about 3 1/2 hours from here, doable in light rain, but we have had quite heavy rain here this evening….so if it’s heavy rain we will have to stop for shelter.  Forecast for Christchurch tomorrow is cloudy….so fingers crossed we make it all the way, and will continue our holiday in a car.