Day 13

Woke up and drove to the beach for breakfast. We enjoyed porridge in the company of some very nosy Wekas. We went to the information center to get lots of handy maps for walking tracks on the coast and bought some bug repellent which was really necessary (sand flies!). Then Jack went to buy a cassette tape of Queen to try in the car… which actually works! (even if the sound was awful for the first 10 minutes). We went to see a seal colony well hidden among the rocks at Cape Foulwind how many seals can you see in our first photo? and did the walk (1-1h30 in total) till the lighthouse. We drove back to Westport to have some cheap and filling lunch from New World. The fuel was still freaking expensive and we drove all the way to the Kohaihai River (lots of hills and far away so I slept…).

We did the Nikau Walk and Scotts Beach lookout only. We went back to the car and saw a cute mouse. We drove to the Oparara Arch car park with low fuel. We decided that it was a great (and legal!) place to sleep with toilets and covered table. Before having dinner, we did the Oparara Arch walk and the Moria arch walk. The first arch was “a masterpiece of nature” (Jack quote) and the next one was still stunning. Unfortunately we got lost on the last track (apparently a loop) but found Sue in time to have pasta next to a lonely french man (of course!). We were worried that a group of guy drinking beer earlier would stay the night here as well… but they left driving crazy in the night.

Entree Written By Marianne