Instincts served me well to hone into this area. It is really beautiful. I am in a place called Pancake Rocks Blow Holes in Pangaroa National Park by
the Porari River. This coastline is beyond stunning, clean, clear, pure and characterized by rocks that look like stacks of pancakes set with a snow-capped mountain backdrop that is the Mount Cook area. Hardly anyone lives here, there are very few facilities, and more tourists than they know what to do with. It is a way point for people travelling and this is a remote area. I have been fortunate enough to be able to take time to walk up the
river and wander the bays and beaches. Inland there are a series of bluffs that are unique and difficult to capture in photographs that the river winds under. One doesn’t worry about animals here the way we do in Canada, for there are none. It was like this when the Maori came. It’s just the way it is. Birds. No animals. What one does run into is poison and traps laid for possum and stoat, both introduced. What is a stoat I asked myself, and I am sorry I don’t know that much about it but I did see a young one in a trap and it looks like a little dog thing with short legs and goodness knows why the British brought it over. There is a kind of a jungle that is the river valley, a fern tree presentation with thick grasses that are like pampas. It isn’t very inviting and while I am of the understanding there is nothing poisonous I keep to the trekking path not wishing to push my luck on the subject. What does bite are nasty black flies that come out in the early evening, vicious creatures and the beaches are populated by a biting sand flea that “loves English blood” making beach sitting a restless experience. The Maori of course have something to say about this saying it is, in measure, protective. The Maori are beautiful looking people, I met a family today. He came selling ‘green stone’ and I bought a couple of pieces from him, happier that I could meet the artist as opposed to purchasing through a shop. Tomorrow I am being taken to a coastal town that is famous for it called Hokatika. I have also been offered a car trip to Christchurch and so I am going to take that with my host rather than the famous train. We will go through Arthur’s Pass which is supposed to be mountainous scenery.
