Todays drive is rather short and incredible beautiful. One has to see the West Coast and its wild forests covering the steep, high rising hills nearly reaching the coast to believe its beauty!
The highway- the only street here really- curves its way around rock cliffs and stays as close to the shore line as the geography allows. Did I mention the snow topped mountains in the background? Another stunning add on!
Soon enough we reach the charmful Hokitika where we spend hours at the pebble stone beach looking for pounami (greenstone) and enjoying the sunshine. Of couse we end up with pockets full of other nicely shaped stones, but there are a few greenstones among them.
Todays mission is to find the Paradise bivouac- a cave we read about that we want to use as a base for a couple of days. Close to the famous pancake rocks hidden away in one of the pretty valleys, we find what we seek. Between us and the cave lies a good patch of think jungle, dominated by Nikau Palms. A teeny tiny path, hardly visible and only marked with some orange ribbons tied on some branches, leads us over the river, up the hill and along the cliff base. After a little detour we stand in front of a large overhang that shelters fairly big area. What a place! Through a gap in the palms below we can see the ocean and even hear the waves crashing onto the beach. Soon darkness falls and we sit by the cranky fire, dring wine, have a feed and get excited about tomorrows climb.
Which turns out to be breathtakingly awesome of course.
