Misled by a Name

Booking all our accommodation before we left was quite a time consuming occupation but I don't know about you but some of the joy of a holiday is the planning. One of the key stops that I booked was a room in a motel at a place called Punakaiki on the West coast. This is the location of the famous Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes. I hope to show you some more pictures of these but here is a little taster.

The room looked out on one of the blow holes, an ideal location! Imagine my disappointment when about a month ago I had an email asking me to cancel my booking because they had suffered a disaster that had destroyed the room. My natural curiosity had me emailing for more information. There's me thinking earthquake (I know wrong coast). It seems a fire sadly destroyed the room. So it was back to searching. Punakaiki is quite small so there was no joy finding another place there so up the coast I looked.

I found a suitable motel just outside Westport at a place called Cape Foulwind. How could a place with a name like that be worth visiting? I was a little concerned about this but it was just a stopover. How wrong can you be. The motel was lovely and the coast beautiful.

We were given directions by the proprietor to a nearby seal colony and enjoyed a scenic walk to see them.

We spent a long time watching the fur seals of all ages. A delight to see. I hope my camera pictures are better than this one. I'm afraid it's rather which is rock and which a seal.

We also spent some time considering the distances we had travelled from home and in New Zealand itself.

Anyway the message is. Should you see a sign to Cape Foulwind on your travels go and have a look. You won't be disappointed.