One of the things we had wanted to do yesterday was to drive up to the old Denniston mine site but we ran out of time. We are going to backtrack and do it today but first we took a short drive down the road from where we stayed last night. The destination was Cape Foulwind and then onto Tauranga Seal Colony.
Cape Foulwind was named by Captain James Cook on one of his voyages. He named it Cape Foulwind in 1770 when he encountered some nasty weather when rounding the cape. We walked up to the lighthouse and beyond in order to get a good view and to take pictures.
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| Lightouse at Cape Foulwind |
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| Part of Cape Foulwind |
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| Cape Foulwind |
When we got back to the parking lot we ran into these guys. They are Wekas, one of about four flightless birds left in New Zealand. They are protected by the NZ government but are considered a pest by everyone else. One lady told us that they kept coming into her house and eating her cat’s food.
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| Weka |
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| Weka |
The seal colony was only a short way down the coast at Tauranga Bay. There weren’t a lot of seals present but they were fun to watch. The scenery of the beach and islands was also pretty nice.
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| Beach in Tauranga Bay |
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| Wall Island |
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| You talking to me. |
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| I don't care how much you beg. |
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| When I say no, I mean no. |
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| You tell em girl. |
We could have stayed and watched the seals for hours but we had to push on.
We backtracked in order to take the road up to the remains of the old Denniston Mine. The mine was operational from 1879 to 1967 and at one time in the early 20th century Dennison’s population was close to 2000. It is still a settlement, however, as of the last census less than 50 people lived there. It is on the small Mount Rochfort Plateau in the Papahaua Range and is 600 meters above sea level.
The method in which the coal was brought down the mountain was pretty ingenious and very dangerous. It was the called the 8th wonder of the world by many in the mining industry. In the early years the only way to take people and goods to or from Denniston was in the wagons on the incline. At first the conditions or the cold uninviting plateau involved such hardship that it was regarded as no place for women, but the pioneering spirit was strong in New Zealand women in the nineteenth century. Soon they began to join their men folk who were mining in Denniston. Some found the trip up in the trucks on the incline so terrifying that despite the hardships in living on the plateau they did not come down for years.
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| Start of the incline |
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| One of the original trucks |
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| View of the first incline |
The view from the top was pretty nice, however the elevation was much too high to get any real definition in our pictures.
The drive down the mountain was fun, I only scared Kathy a couple of times. Once we were on the main highway we pointed the van south towards Greymouth, our planned stopping point for the night.
The terrain from Westport until we reached the Paparoa National Park was mostly farm land with the Tasman Sea on one side and the mountains on the other. The change was pretty dramatic when we hit the park. The coastal road through the park has been voted one of the top ten scenic drives in the world. The only problem was there were not that many places to stop to take pictures. We know now that the only way to properly see it is to hike it. If time permits we would like to come back here.
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| Pararoa National Park |
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| Paparoa National Park |
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| Paparoa National Park |
The highlight of the park is at the town village of Punakaiki which is home to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. The Pancake Rocks have a pancake look to them which is really the layering of the limestone. The Blowholes are a number of vertical holes that the sea with burst through at high tide. The two features together make quite a spectacle.
We arrived in Punakaiki about 3 hours before high tide so we didn’t get to see the water bursting through the blowholes. We thought about staying until we realized that even if we did stay the sun would be right in our eyes which would limit our visibility. We were also told that they don’t always work as the direction of the tide also has something to do with it. So we had to be content with the pictures we did have.
It was getting late and we still had a few more miles to go before we hit Greymouth so we hit the road. Upon our arrival at Greymouth we went straight to the Holiday Park and settled in for the night. We were tired, very tired after another great day in New Zealand.
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