Whoa some more seals, but these little fellows were fat, lazy & enjoying life at Tauranga Bay outside of Westport. Laying on the rocks, nipping at each other once in awhile & frolicking in the waves. Next we road the curves south on the coastal highway with its amazing scenery. It is touted as one of the 10 greatest coastal highway drives in the world. It was hard for Vic to keep his eyes on the road. It reminded us a bit of driving Big Sur.We made our way to Punakaiki Pancake Rocks & Blow holes. Unfortunately we didn't see any action from the blowholes, but we have to say we really liked the pancake rocks. Very thin layers of rock produced by volcanic action. After leaving the pancakes we headed for Greymouth & the TranzScenic Alpine rail trip to Christchurch. The scenery was amazing including the Southern Alps with snow covered caps. Lots of glacier run off streams & waterfalls. Fields of sheep, elk & cattle, swamps, forests & so much green it was a buzz just to take it all in. It's hard to explain the wildness, green & stunning vistas we've seen. At 6PM we got to Christchurch & it was the coldest temp since we got to NZ. We walked 2KM to our hotel, drank a bottle of '09 Hawkes Ridge Wine Estate Pinot Noir & went in search of a restaurant. It was only 8PM, but I guess things start closing down early in Christchurch since the earthquake. We finally ended up at Riccarton Noodle House & had several excellent Cambodian dishes. We have several observations about traffic & tourism in NZ. Where are all the people? NZ is so beautiful & sometimes we drive for 20 minutes on main roads without seeing a car. Finally we have met a few west coast Canadians, very few Americans, more Japanese & the greatest amount of tourists are German. So far its been a good trip.
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