Nelson - Greymouth - day 58

After getting back on the Magicbus, we drove down the west coast of New Zealand. The bus trip was long, but we didn't mind too much cause the weather was really horrible. We stopped at a place called Cape Foulwind where we got off the bus for a short walk along the coast. It was raining a lot; when we came around a corner on the path, the wind was insane! (That place really deserves its name!) We walked to the lookout point and saw a bunch of seals and then ran back to the bus, but it was too late, we were already soaking wet by then... Eventhough we spent most of the day on the bus, the scenery was incredible. The rain made it even more impressive because at one point we were driving through a gorge where there just seemed to be waterfalls coming down from everywhere, most of them right over the road! We reached the Paparoa National Park and went for another short walk. We got to a small beach and watched the incredible size of the waves that were breaking over the rocks in front of us. Our next stop was at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks: basically a bunch of rock formations that have been eroded by the water and the wind and that now look like big piles of pancakes. These rocks are right on the coast and are surrounded by water, so the waves that crash into them make them even more impressive. We also saw a few blowholes and some nice birds. After that we stopped in Greymouth, a tiny town comparable to Morecambe (for those who were in Lancaster with us!) and stayed there for the night. The hostel was really nice, so we decided to just stay there. There wasn't anything to do or see in Greymouth anyway. We played some darts (Nat won) and then some pool (Pierre won) and finally watched The Lord of the Rings 3.

Weather: very unpleasant, lots of rain and hail and even some snow...