Greymouth-Westport, one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the world

(Hi, I'm Josele; as we split in Hokitika, I'll tell my part of the journey until Arthur's Pass, aka Moria)

After leaving Fox Glacier I started feeling lazy and decided not to climb to Arthur's Pass with the bike, so I did an easy 40km. flat short stage to Greymouth and rented a car there. Greymouth was not too interesting (at least what I saw while biking) and I found Hokitika prettier.

We had met a couple of Slovenians during the Milford Track and they had told me that the stretch of road between Westport and Greymouth (100km. long) was the most beautiful road they had seen in the country (they had a camper van), so I was curious to see it... Later, I checked in the Lonely Planet, and they have put it in their Top Ten Scenic Drives in the World, so if you like driving and come nearby, think about doing it, because it is well worth it.

The drive is without doubt the best I've ever done in my life. Ok, I don't have a lot of expertise driving in amazing roads, but it's comparable (to me, even more beautiful) to the scenic drives between Nice and Monaco, and the route 1 south of San Francisco in western US (which I had the luck to drive).

The road meanders through valleys (with many curves with 25 or 35 kph limit), the mountains covered with rainforest. At times, it gets closer to the sea, and then you find yourself awing at 50+m. tall cliffs over the sea. The whole coastline is dotted with the famous "pancake rocks" of New Zealand's West Coast... They are limestone rocks, formed approx. 150 million years ago from the fossilized remains of many long dead animals, fused with the rocks that emerge from the ocean (this area is where the Pacific and Asian tectonic plates meet). Some 100 thousand years ago, the rocks emerged from the bottom of the sea, and the water has been constantly eroding them, taking away the softest bits (the fossilized animals) and leaving only the hardest parts of the rocks, thus giving them the shape of stacked pancakes.

The coast has also many more things to see, although I only had time to visit a seal colony, 10 km. to the south of Westport. I had a lot of time, so I could thorougly enjoy the drive, never doing much more than 55-60 kph. I think I was also lucky with the light, as the sun was shining from the see and I could take really nice photos.

Talking about photos, I have loads of them to share, but the computer's SD connector does not seem to work... I hope I can fix it.

This morning I took the bus from Greymouth and arrived at Arthur's Pass a bit before 10am, so I was able to do a couple short 1-hour walks in the valley while waiting for JL Blasco. The view is amazing, a bit like the Swiss Alps, and we are being lucky with the weather (although it seems we'll get a storm tomorrow evening...hopefully it'll let us do some hiking during the day).


And now, I'm off to try to solve the SD connector problem and share the photos.