Punakaiki, South Island, New Zealand

27th November – 29th November 2017

We arrived at the bus stop nice and early, but the driver was already there, so that was okay. He was very chirpy for that time of morning, which worked in our favour as we needed to ask him if he would drop us outside our hostel, as it was on the way and the maps app was showing it was a forty minute walk for us (which we didn’t fancy with all of our bags). He said it would depend on the traffic at the time, but he couldn’t make any promises.

We set off towards Punakaiki and got a running commentary again from our driver about things we saw along the way. The most interesting thing he told us, and the thing that stuck in my mind, was the story about a little town that we stopped off in for a rest stop. He didn’t tell us the story until we were back on the bus because he said the town don’t like to talk about it and they don’t like people knowing, so we wouldn’t find it in any information books, we would have to google it specifically. The story was about a farmer, James Sewell, who argued with his neighbour about everything. In the end he took him to court, as he thought his neighbour stole his best cow (although this isn’t what he wanted, he wanted him to be fined). During the court procedure, he got himself so worked up that he left. When he returned, he had strapped grenades to himself and ended up blowing himself up outside of court, killing only himself but injuring the police man who had dealt with the case. This is apparently the first recorded case of suicide bombing, back in 1904, and as the driver explained multiple times, the town are trying to forget about it.

After what felt like a very long ride, we arrived in Punakaiki just after 12. Luckily, the driver was able to pull up on the main road and drop us off, which was very kind of him. We checked in and very quickly realised that we were in the middle of nowhere, which I don’t mind usually, but we hadn’t done a food shop and were very low on supplies. There wasn’t anything we could do about that though, as we were there and couldn’t get anywhere else until our next bus a couple of days later.

Once we had dropped our bags off in the room, we went to try and make ourselves some lunch. For lunch, we were having whatever we could scramble together out of the odd bits that we had left in the bag, which turned out just fine in the end.

After we had eaten and cleared up, we decided to go for a wander into the ‘village’ to see what it had to offer. The walk was not as far as we expected (not the forty minutes that the maps app had suggested anyway). It was slightly uphill, but nothing we couldn’t manage, which was handy to know as we would have to do it with our bags when we were leaving.

At the top of the hill, was the entrance for the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes walk. The Pancake Rocks is what makes Punakaiki as well known as it is, so we had to see them. We started the trail and the rocks got better, the more we went around the track. Unfortunately, as the tide was quite low and the water was calm, we didn’t get to the see the blowholes, but the views were amazing, as were the rocks, so we didn’t feel like we were missing out too much.

 

Once we had finished the track, we got back to the village area. When I say village, it contained an information centre, a café and an ice cream stand, which was perfect for us! We got an ice cream and sat down to enjoy it.

After the ice cream, we walked back towards the hostel, stopping in the Punakaiki cavern on the way. It was cool that we were able to walk right inside the cavern but we didn’t go too far as we didn’t have a torch, so we couldn’t see anything.

Back at the hostel, we spent the rest of the afternoon in planning mode. We sorted out what we wanted to do for the rest of our time in New Zealand and started to look at some hostels. I was glad we thought about planning ahead, as there were lots of things already booked up, as the South Island is much more popular than the north. We ended up with a good plan for the remaining three weeks, even if we did spend a fortune and did both end up with headaches.

Once we had finished our research, we made some dinner. Luckily, we had a tin of tuna in the bag and there was pasta on sale in the hostel, so tune pasta it was. The kitchen was very crowded which made it difficult to cook, so I was glad that we weren’t doing anything complicated.

After dinner, we chilled out and waited for the sunset. When it was time, we went to the beach and sat on the rocks to enjoy the views, but there were lots of flies, so it wasn’t so enjoyable.

After the sunset, we watched some Netflix and got ourselves an early night, ready for a long day of walking the next day.

As we had a plan of what we wanted to do, and we were on our own schedule, we decided to have a bit of a lie in the next morning. It wasn’t a massive lie in and I can’t sleep in anymore, but it was nice to not have to rush for a bus. We got up and ready and had some breakfast, before making a packed lunch and setting off on our walk.

We wanted to head towards Fox River Caves for the day, as Joe had researched it and it was a top thing to do in Punakaiki. To get there, we had a long walk ahead of us, but as there wasn’t anything else to do in the area, we didn’t mind walking.

After walking for two hours, ten minutes, we arrived at Fox River Beach – a 12 kilometre walk along a very long road by the coast. The views along the way were beautiful, as we were up high and could see along the coast on both sides, for miles.

When we arrived at Fox River Beach, we were happy with how good we felt and how easy we found the walk, especially as the man in the hostel had laughed at us when we asked if we could walk it – we were very glad we ignored him. We sat on the beach for a brief break and ate our picnic with the views of the sea.

At first, as the bus driver had said it was, we thought that the cave on the beach was Fox River Cave, but he wasn’t right, as the cave on the beach was Old Road Cave and Fox River Cave was inland slightly.

Although we were tired after the rest, we started our four kilometre walk inland towards the cave, as that was what we had originally come to see. The walk was pretty damp and dark as we walked through the forest, but there was a path, sort of, so we hoped that we were on the right track. We had a few little streams to cross and had to dodge some big mud patches but we got through the worst of it and made it to a fork in the path. To the left of the fork, the path was shut, and to the right of the fork was a wide river crossing, with no bridge, so we were stuck.

Unfortunately, the way that we needed to go to get the cave was the way that was shut, and it has been shut since the earthquake, in November 2016! This was slightly annoying, as the man in the hostel must have known that it was shut, and we told him we were going there but he didn’t say anything.

Instead of turning around straight away, we thought we would have a rest and paddle in the river, as we couldn’t cross it, it was far too wide, with a stony floor. We took our shoes off and went in, but it was icy cold, so we didn’t stay in for very long. We got out and dried our feet before starting the walk back to the hostel.

The walk back wasn’t quite as pleasant as the walk there, as it was a lot more uphill and the road seemed even longer! We did the whole thing in less than three hours though, so quicker than on the way there, but we were on a mission, as we had made the decision to go to the pub by our hostel when we got back, to reward ourselves.

With about two kilometres to go to the pub, we were offered a lift from two other travellers who drove by in their campervan. Although the offer was kind of them, we didn’t take it as we had come so far, we wanted to complete the walk and really earn the drink.

When we finally arrived at the pub, we made our way straight to the bar and ordered our drinks, before heading out to the beer garden. We sat in the beer garden for a while, which was a lovely treat, as the beer garden was very pretty and the weather was gorgeous. After a few drinks and some food (as our options were limited), we walked back to the hostel, via the beach.

At the beach, we sat on the rocks again for a while before heading inside to shower and chill out. As we had already eaten at the pub, I didn’t have to do any cooking for the evening, which was a nice change. We chilled out for the rest of the evening, before going to bed – we were both so tired after the twenty eight kilometre walk we had done.

The final morning in Punakaiki was a chilled morning. We had a bit more of a lie in, before getting up and packing, ready to move on. We had a bit of a lazy morning: we sat in the hostel garden, we sat on the beach for a bit and then sat in the shade, as we got too hot.

About an hour before our bus was due, we got our things together and walked up the hill to the bus stop – which fortunately wasn’t the forty minutes that the app said it was.

At the bus stop, in the village, we ate our lunch, which was left over pasta from the other night. After lunch, there was time for a quick ice cream before the bus arrived. We boarded the bus at 12.35 to leave Punakaiki and head towards Hokitika, our next South Island stop.

Despite it being very quiet, with not a lot to do, I really enjoyed Punakaiki. As we were able to make the most out of the food that we had left, we didn’t need to worry about that, which was nice. We made the most out of our time, even if it did mean walking for miles up and down hills – we’re becoming professionals at that now! I am starting to enjoy the quiet, not-a-lot-to-do places a lot more, even more than some of the cities we have visited. Punakaiki might only be famous for the Pancake Rocks but we found more than that to do and found it very beautiful. It’s time to see what Hokitika has to offer.

To travel is to live, Katie x