Thursday, March 13
Greymouth to Westport. This stretch of riding was fantastic. We left the flat farmland behind. The coastline here became much more rocky and vertical with the rain forest returning after several days
of absence. Hillsides covered in palms and ferns dropped steeply to
rocky beaches edged by turquoise water. The coastline here is still
actively being broken up by the surf. Great chunks of rock remain
stranded out in the water along the shore, often with caps of lush
vegetation clinging to their tops. We stopped at Punakaiki for lunch
and hiked out to the shore to see the famous pancake rocks (stratified
limestone stacks rising out of the sea).
These rocks looked constructed -- almost too orderly in their weird stratification to be real. Then on to Westport. The road began to turn inland, so we jumped off on a secondary road running along coast. Riding a hefty tail wind blowing off Cape Foulwind we coasted into Westport -- but not before rolling by a seal colony (didn't see any seals) and a few caribou (on a farm).
