Franz Josef to Westport

The ride to Westport was a little dull until I reached my first view of the Tasman Sea, which was fantastic. This blue stretch of water is truly magnificent.

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Stopped for construction

 

It was very gusty all day and I felt like I was fighting the wind the whole time, which was very noisy and tiring.

My two main stops along the way were lunch at Greymouth and the pancake rocks at Punakaiki. The walkway for the rocks was a little too full of tourists but the rocks themselves were pretty cool looking. Apparently nobody knows what caused the striations through them!

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Pancake rocks at Punakaiki

 

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The Tasman Sea past the pancake rocks at Punakaiki

 

I got to Westport a little bit too late to do anything interesting because everything shuts down at 5 PM. My hostel dorm room was really adorable though, which made up for the town not being much. :P

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Dorm room at Westport. My favorite and cosiest so far!