We woke up to a light rain, and headed for the West Coast.

The road follows Buller River and the closer to the coast it got, the more interesting. At Westport, we headed north on probably some of the straightest road we had been on the entire trip. We almost missed the turnoff to Charming Creek because the sign was not all that obvious.

We parked at the pullout for the track, and the rain started pouring down. It was a little early for lunch, but we prepared a sandwich and hoped that the squall would pass through. By the time we were clearing our dishes, it was back to a drizzle. So, donning our raingear, off we went.

We followed the Ngakawau River at first. The river was very muddy and uninviting due to the rain. The track follows an old coal and timber railroad from over a century ago. On some of the wetter sections, we had to balance on the rails or jump from tie to tie. Some mining carts and other relics have been left behind which were very interesting.

We had to pass through a couple of tunnels and along some steep rockfaces where signs warned you not to stop due to the rockfall risk. There were a couple of small bridges to cross and we came to a rather pretty waterfall that I thought was Mangatini Falls. Further ahead we crossed a rather long and narrow swingbridge from where we could hear a much larger waterfall – the real Mangatini!

This walk had everything! We chose to turn around at the Watson Mill Site. If it had been a clear day, this would have been a good spot to have a picnic. The skies cleared and we had a great outing.

We drove down the coast and arrived at Trumans Track at almost high tide. It was about a 10 minute hike through the rainforest to the beach. There were several folks standing on the lookout where the track ends, across the cove from the waterfall. We knew there was a geocache near the waterfall, so we dodged the waves a bit to get to it and were successful.

Then on to Pancake Rocks. We arrived exactly at high tide, as planned. There was no mistaking where the entrance was. It was tourist central with several buses parked in front of the restrooms and giftshop!   All the planning to get there at high tide was a bit of a letdown. The blowhole spit and spewed a little, but not like pictures I’ve seen of it. There was a surgepool nearby that I thought was much more dramatic. The rock structures were very awesome though, so we weren’t disappointed.

We found our way to Punakaiki Beach Camp and took a stroll down the road to a beautiful cove.  We settled in for the night and finally had a hot shower!

The Adventure Continues>>>