Westport, NZ

Monday, February 24

After an exciting jet boat ride on the Buller River in the town of Murchison, Andi, Tory, Aden and I ziplined our way out of the Buller Gorge Adventure Park and into the parking lot back to our RV. We hit the road shortly thereafter in route to New Zealand’s West Coast. We’ve heard so many great things about the rugged, untamed west coast beaches; Andi and I were excited to check it out.

Earlier in the day, Andi spoke with the receptionist at the Buller Canyon Jet Boat office who mentioned a fantastic campsite on the northwestern side called Gentle Annie’s. The campground is situated right on the ocean with big grassy campsites and a make-your-own-pizza oven. Sold! We decided to head there for the night.

From Murchison, we followed Highway 6 along the coast, passing through small seaside towns along the way. We stopped for ice cream at a convenience store outside of Westport, and the woman working behind the counter was so friendly. She patiently waited for the kids to pick their ice cream flavors and told us about a local man who was stopping by in a bit to pick up his weekly supply of lollies. (Lollies mean “candy” in Kiwi speak). For the most part, everyone we’ve met in New Zealand has been so kind. People you’d assume would be short-tempered go out of their way to ask how our travels have been, where we’re heading next, and offer suggestions. Kiwis are really great!

We pulled into the Gentle Annie’s Campground around 4:00pm and made a loop around the property to scope out the perfect spot. There were campsites near the beach and others on grassy lawns with flower gardens. We selected a grassy spot near the Cowshed Cafe and community kitchen for ease.

Gentle Annie’s did have a wood-fire pizza oven as we’d heard. The cafe sold pizza crusts and basic ingredients like sauce and cheese. Andi and I decided to make “clean out the fridge” pizzas for our dinner & surprisingly we had quite a few items to make up a pretty good pizza — shredded cheese, tomato sauce, black olives, salami, and zucchini.

There was also a flat, open soccer field next to the cafe. Tory and Aden entertained themselves kicking balls back and forth while Andi and I assembled the pizzas for dinner. Thank goodness for our Pipe Lake summer pizza party! Andi turned into the resident campsite pizza chef offering advice on cooking times and topping suggestions. We ate our pizza outside on the patio and soaked up the sunny warm evening temperature. Perfect way to end a great day!

After dinner, the four of us walked down to the beach to catch our first New Zealand sunset. Actually, I think everyone from the campsite camp down to the beach to watch the sun go down. It was really special looking around and seeing everyone celebrate the close of the day. The four of us sat on a big piece of driftwood and counted our blessings for another great travel day.

Tuesday, February 25

This morning, we hung around Gentle Annie’s campground for a while. Andi enjoyed breakfast and coffee in the Cowshed Cafe onsite while I worked out and got the kids dressed. We decided to do school inside the cafe over muffins, so we cozied up to a table inside and worked on Tory and Aden’s studies. After school work was done, Andi took the kiddos down to the beach to play while I stayed back at the cafe to catch up on blogging. Gentle Annie’s was such a relaxed spot to spend time. It was a good place for all of us to recharge our travel batteries.

After lunch, the four of us hopped into the RV and drove south along the northwestern coast of the South Island. We stopped for a tramp in the bush (New Zealand speak for a walk in the woods) at Charming Creek Walkway. Unfortunately, we discovered once we arrived that all but one of the trails was closed. A 10-minute walk to “The Bins” — an old railroad track was the open path open. We came all this way and the four of us were out of the RV, sunscreened & bugsprayed up and ready to go — I told Andi we should just go for it, so we did. Tory and Aden tore off down the path through the woods and had fun burning off some energy. We had the whole walkway to ourselves and it felt good to get some fresh air on a sunny, warm summer day.

Next, we stopped in the town of Westport to buy groceries and to dump our cassette. Andi bought a coffee from a local cafe and we continued on toward Punakaiki, a small community best known for the Pancake Rocks south of the main village.

We planned to camp at the Punakaiki Campground for the night, but decided to drive by the Pancake Rocks area to check it out before we settled in for the night. The best time to visit the Pancake Rocks is at high tide when the sea bursts through vertical blowholes. Andi checked the tide chart and determined that NOW was the best time to visit the rocks. Otherwise, we’d have to get up and be back here at 7:00am tomorrow.

The kids have been sleeping in until 7:30am most mornings, so we knew waking them to see the Pancake Rocks tomorrow would be a challenge. We decided to drop everything & see the rocks now. Andi found a parking spot in an oversized vehicle lot and we walked down the road to check out the visitor center.

This was the first proper visitor’s center I’ve seen in New Zealand since we arrived here. It was nice to have a professional ranger available for questions and educational information about the Pancake Rocks available. Once again I’m reminded how lucky we are in the Untied States to have gorgeous, well-curated state and national park locations available for the public to utilize.

Tory, Aden, Andi and I walked across the street to the entrance of the Pancake Rocks. We walked along the pathway, reading signage and learning about the “pancake layering” of limestone that formed these rocks over millions of years.

As we were walking back to our RV, I mentioned to Andi that I never saw any blowholes. He commented that he hadn’t either. We eventually determined that he thought I said the best time to visit was low-tide and therefore we’d actually gone there at the opposite time we should have. Oh well! It was still neat to see.

We loaded ourselves into the RV and drove to Punakaiki Campground for the night. After going to check us in, Andi returned to the RV to say they were booked. Well, at least the powered sites were taken. Only non-powered sites were available and they were $50 NZ each. We agreed that seemed like a lot, so Andi and I decided to keep driving.

There was another holiday park not far from Punakaiki that we checked out, but didn’t have a good feeling about either. Even though it was already 7:30pm, Andi and I decided to continue on farther south to find another spot to sleep for the night. We ended up parking at a freedom camping site along the beach. Not every camping spot is glamorous! This one was super unlevel next to a field of cows, but it was free. I always say, once we pull the shades of the RV at night, you can really be anywhere because the inside of our RV feel s like home.

Andi and Tory walked along the beach at sunset and said it was really beautiful. Tomorrow, we’re leaving the West Coast for a few days & driving inland over Lewis Pass. More to come…