Not returning in a straight line but going North, embracing the wild and lush Westcoast feeling.
Westcoast at Strongman Mine Memorial north of Rapahoe.What an amazing coast line.Weird sky today.Stopping at Motukiekie Beach to add to our already massive rock collection.Next: Punakaiki, pancake rocks.While the processes which form limestone are well understood, the reasons why some limestones are layered still have geologists guessing.Formerlz it was believed that sea currents had shuffled material into alternate layers of hard limestone and soft mudstone during the depostition phase.Now it’s generally agreed that the layers are the result of a secondary process called stylobedding.After being buried and compacted, grains of shell and skeleton were put under such immense pressure that they passed into solution.Some minerals merged to form thin seams of mudstone between layers of limestone.The forces of sea and weather during the past 100.000 years have eroded the mudstone more than the limestone, enhancing the pancake effect.The rocks have been uplifted to its present day position above sea level, and stripped of beach sands and gravels that once covered them.Can’t get enough of these shapes.Street view Punakaiki.Like Punakaiki, Pororari River Track also is in the Paparoa National Park.Have been here a few times, but the lush bush never gets old.Nikau.The river at the lookout 20 min into the walk. If you carry on, you could do so for another 16 km.Ferns, fern trees and other greenery.Same in shadows.Mirroring at the river.After the walk, we were driven to Westport by our nice apprentice chauffeuse.Very small Westcoast town and easy to find sunsets.Here you go!And also here, in the windows of the Coaltown Museum.And here, in the clouds, at last.
