after our first night in the camper van, we drove north along the coast. the wound up and down hills right next to cliffs. it sorta reminded us of the California coast. i think both of the next two pictures were taken from scenic view pull offs:



the main reason we detoured north along the coast was to see the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. it turned out to be one the big highlights early on in the trip. they are rock formations carved by the sea. the rock was layers of sandstone and limestone. the sandstone erodes quicker, which resulted in the horizontal slices you see below.




it was an easy twenty minute paved walk. there were a few bridges and impressive over looks:






there was definitely a tropical feel to some of the vegetation in this area:


in this shot, you can see some of New Zealand flax that we saw everywhere: