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Further exploiting its surplus of castaways, Hokitika holds an annual driftwood and sand sculpture festival each summer with everyone from kids to professional artists invited to submit entries, each judged in the appropriate category.  The New Zealand tourism web site offers some examples of creations in this celebration of beach culture.  Some years, as many as 70 sculptures adorn the Hokitika beach.  Today there were no sculptures except the city name, but there was a letterbox and we found it.

After stamping in, we hopped back in the car and drove inland about 20 miles to look for another box at Hokitika Gorge.  With the highest rainfall in New Zealand, the west coast is blessed with lush rain forests.  From the car park, we walked along a trail lined with tree-sized ferns and large podocarps to an overlook offering our first sighting of the granite ravine and the milky, blue-green Hokitika River

Hokitika Gorge

Continuing on the trail another ten minutes led us to the swing bridge over the canyon.  On the other side of the bridge, the trail continued through the dense foliage, opening up to more excellent views of the gorge.  Hidden under the exposed root of a tree along the way, we found our second letter box of the day.  A bonus was included in the letterbox clue, a tip to make this trip a circuit by driving around Lake Kaniere Scenic Preserve.  This took us along a well-maintained gravel road to Dorothy Falls, a 210-ft multi-stage fall definitely worth a bit of a detour.

Dorothy Falls

But the west coast had much more to offer.  Though we are not going as far south as the famous Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers on this trip, we were aiming to see a national park which promised a special kind of rock formation.  So back north we drove to Greymouth, and past it another 30 miles to Punakaiki and the Visitor Centre for Paparoa National Park. Across the street at Dolomite Point, we accessed the brilliantly designed and well-maintained trail to the pancake rocks and blowholes that form the main attraction of this park.

Along the trail, interpretive signs offered handy information about the native plants growing in thick profusion nearby. When we reached the coast, the Pancake Rocks came into view.  These heavily eroded layered limestone stacks were formed over many millions of years by massive pressure exerted on alternating layers of marine creatures and soft sediment.

Pancake Rocks

Ensconced among the stacks are several vertical blowholes where the sea bursts through during high tides.  Since we had arrived in late afternoon, the tide had rolled back out to sea, and all was calm in the erstwhile water vents.  There was nothing to be done but return on Thursday morning.  Our 1:45 train departure to Christchurch left us the full morning to make a comeback to Paparoa.  What a difference a tide makes!  There was no shortage of action upon our return.

Chimney Pot blowhole

Putai

Surge Pool

These rock formations are so extensive and so interesting, we were unable to resist making a comparison with Victoria's Twelve Apostates Apostles on the Great Ocean Road that we saw a couple of weeks ago in Australia.  Let us just say we're glad we saw the Pancake Rocks second.  They would be a very difficult act to follow.  In fact, we planted one of our "Love This Spot" letterboxes on the trail to the rocks.  Thanks to our letterboxing friend Jane, aka Wise Old Owl, the letterboxes in this series now contain beautifully hand-carved stamps, offering the finders the double bonus of visiting a compelling location and seeing a remarkable work of art.

After our return visit to Paparoa National Park, we made it back to Greymouth in plenty of time to have lunch at the quirky DP1 Cafe near the train station.  With a Hertz agent on site at the station, drop-off of the rental car could not have been more convenient.  Having read rave reviews of the TranzAlpine scenic train route, we were eager to begin the journey.  And though there were some impressive panoramic vistas crossing from Greymouth on the west coast to Christchurch on the east coast, much of the railroad paralleled the highway.  So, yes, we had seen most of these views a couple of days before.  Though not new, they were still impressive, and the rail journey was a great break from driving and a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Ken listens to the narrative commentary about the scenes we're passing.

Upon our arrival in Christchurch, we caught a taxi to our hotel and were delighted to learn that our gracious host Carol had upgraded us to the beautiful two-bedroom penthouse.  Not only was it luxurious and spacious, it was equipped with a laundry room, a supreme stroke of luck today when we had run out of clean clothes.

For the next couple of days, we will explore Christchurch, a city wracked by devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.