We went first to Cape Foulwind on Tauranga Bay where there is one of the largest seal colonies in New Zealand. This is the closest point on NZ to Australia. There were seal pups of all sizes from newborn to big fluffy ones. We thought we were watching one trying to deliver. It was just phenomenal to watch them all. It’s very rocky and you wonder how they move around and get in some of the places where they were. We could really get a good view of them and were relatively close but the terrain allows no one to move in on them.

From there we headed on down the coast road. We saw all kinds of evidence of landslides etc. We passed several construction crews that had us blocked while they removed debris from the road. Water is everywhere and all the rivers we saw were RAGING!! No let up in the rain at all!! We went to Paparoa National Park and the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. We stopped at the visitor center where there was also a craft shop and café. It was about 11:15 Am. and they still had no power. No warm soup or tea today! We walked on over in the rain to explore the Pancake Rocks. They are real unusual formations. They are a series of stratified limestone stacks, which, over many thousands of years have been eroded to give the effect of giant piles of neatly stacked pancakes. The blowholes in them operate at high tide or heavy weather and they throw up dazzling columns of spray. There were caves relatively nearby but it was raining so hard and we’d have had to walk into the rain to get there. We’d have never gotten dry again so we skipped those. We ended up having to stay at this place over four hours killing time. They had word that the roads were closed (because of high water) in the direction we were going – toward Greymouth.

Hours later we continued down the road just to see what the conditions were. High tide had been at noon, which complicated the high water from the rain. At 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. when the tide was lower they were going to see if it was passable. We drove till there were cars pulled off all along the road and then lined up in the road. We got out and walked a long way up to the front. Where a river should have been there was a huge lake. Then we began to pick out roofs of buildings or signs along where the road would be etc. We went back and got on the bus. Nick knew of a pub down the road so we went back there and hung out for two hours killing time. When we returned everyone was still lined up. We could see on the signs how much the water had come down. Two huge milk tanker trucks came through from the other side and we watched the water level on their vehicles. Nick decided to go for it! We took all the backpacks from under the bus and put them in with us and he charged on. We could see the markers on the side of the road, which helped Nick stay on course. We took water up to the second step in the bus. It felt like we were in an amphibious vehicle! We made a wake for the bus behind us, which wasn’t quite as high off the road. We both got through! Nick just added to our "Kiwi experiences"!!