On our last morning at the Barn we opened our door to find the resident ducks waddling towards us looking for some breakfast. We obliged them and fed them bread for awhile. Funny, because James smacks his lips together when he sees duck, I know he's picturing it roasted with some plum sauce whilst I'm thinking aww little ducks lets feed them. He had his hands around the fattest at one point but they all escaped with their lives this time!
We were heading south down along the west coast of the island that day. The west coast and Punakaiki were highly recommended to us by our different guides in Abel Tasman. It was a mostly inland winding road heading south coming out onto the coastline less than 100km north of Punakaiki.
The Lonely PLanet came through for us big time here. We found Te Nikau retreat which had a glowing review which it more than lived up to. The retreat consists of 9 different buildings and hideaways. We were in the Magnolia room of one such cosy house. The rainforest completely enveloped it right up to the edge of the wooden decking surrounding the house. There are other small cabins dotted throughout the property which is nestled in amongst the rainforest halfway between the main road and the beach. We decided to grab a bottle of wine in Punakaiki Tavern before settling in for the evening. As we walked in the door and spotted the fire blazing, a dog panned out in front of it and rugby on tv I knew we wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.
After we pulled ourselves away from there we took a stroll down to the beach. Now let me try paint a picture of the beach. It was a far cry from those we had grown accostomed to over the past year or so. If you can think of scenes from 'The Piano' which was filmed in NZ, the enormous mountains covered in green lush dripping wet rainforest which rolls down to the shore almost. The dark,muddy, brown colour of the sands with grey and white foamy water crashing upon it is wildly beautiful.
The stretch of coast along the SH6 is covered with this type of scenery. This is dubbed as one of the best coastal drives in the world by our water taxi skipper. We unfortunately had a very cloudy day and the cover was so low in fact the mountain peaks were fully obscured. At times the ocean was almost invisible. But it was an impressive drive nonetheless. The misty clouds lent that whole stretch of coast a moody feel! A black and white version of Australia's Great Ocean road!
We settled in for the evening and got chatting to a couple other backpackers in our house, a Spanish and a German couple, and freakily enough a guy we had spotted on the west coast in Oz at a roadhouse, and then later again in Coral bay. Lets just say he's a very recognisable person. I couldn't believe it when he came in the door. What are the odds?!
We hit the hay soon after looking forward to reaching Franz Josef early the following morning. Punakaiki had turned out to be one of those lovely unexpected, unplanned places that occasionally you come across when on the road.
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