We headed today from Nelson to our next stop – Greymouth. Rather than following the main road, we decided to take the coast road towards Westport and then south from there to Greymouth. The main idea was to be able to stop at the Punakaiki rocks – otherwise known as the ‘pancake rocks‘.
This is an area of the coast where the limestone has been very heavily eroded and collapsed in various places creating pools and blowholes. The ‘pancake’-layering of the limestone was apparently created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments. This gives the appearance of layered rock – hence the name.
We stayed for the night at Greymouth. Greymouth was originally a coal and gold mining town, but as was the case in many places (particularly on the west coast) these industries started to decline and forestry became a new staple industry. Fishing has also long been important to the town, despite the fact that the entrance to the Grey River has two notoriously dangerous sandbars; an inner bar and an outer bar.
Being right on the river the town has regularly been flooded. Since the 1860s, the town had been under water almost two dozen times. In 1988 the town was flooded twice and so they started an ambitious project to build a flood protection wall. Since it was completed, the town has not been flooded.