We woke to cloud and sprinkles, and though the clouds remained with us all day, we never had rain. Leaving the campground, we crossed Marine Parade Rd to check out the beach. Then we headed south on Hwy 6 following the Tasman Sea coast. From Fox River to Runanga the coast reminded us of Big Sur Country, very rugged with spectacular views.  

We stopped at Punakaiki and the Paparoa National Park. In this pretty area are the famous Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. We took a nice walk to see and photograph the rocks. The limestone rocks do look like stacks of pancakes; my book says a type of weathering called stylobedding formed them.  

The nearby café was selling pancakes with maple syrup, a great idea because I'm sure the suggestion of pancakes made folks hungry. We went on down the road to have our sandwiches. 

Then we arrived in Greymouth, which sounds like a terrible place but is a nice little town. The name comes from being at the mouth of the Grey River. There are certainly a lot of rivers in this country.

We took a detour off our southerly route to drive partway up Arthur’s Pass to a campground with terrific reviews.   I have to agree that its setting and the amenities here are outstanding. I took a photo of their kitchen/lounge area, which is very nice.  

Two more bonuses are the 30 minute hike to the waterfall through dense bush (REALLY dense bush –we almost needed cutlasses to get through the vegetation) and a walk in the dark to see glow worms. Glow worms are the larvae of a gnat which have luminescent organs which produce a soft greenish glowing light. They weave sticky threads that catch insects attracted to the light. They thrive in dark caves but can also live anywhere there is enough moisture, an overhang to suspend from, and enough insects to eat. The glow worms that shine most brightly are the hungriest.

I’d love to tell you that we were successful seeing the glow worms. Bob and I stumbled around (literally) in the dark for an hour, climbing up a hill looking for a cave that we never found. We felt as if we’d been sent on a snipe hunt. Sigh…….maybe another time.